Orestes
by Kaen Okami
Summary: From striving to be the perfect heir to the throne, to fighting for his life on the battlefield, to slowly uncovering his mother's deceptions, to trying ultimately in vain to protect his family, Ren Hakuyuu has always struggled through life. (For the Magi Big Bang 2017.)
1. Chapter 1

" _And so the tale begins...as a tragedy."_

 _MOTHER 3_

~0~

The first lesson in war that Ren Hakuyuu ever learns is taught to him by his mother.

In the earlier years of Emperor Hakutoku's reign, the palace's guards are not as numerous and its fortifications not as strong as they would someday be, and one night when Hakuyuu is four years old, they both fall. While Hakutoku is on campaign in Gou, a band of insurgents from Gai storm in to hunt down his wife and sons, determined to end the conqueror's bloodline before it can truly begin. But Hakuyuu is aware of none of this at first. He only knows that something must be horribly wrong, because for the first time in his life, he is seeing his mother afraid.

If she had known earlier what was going on, if she had had more time to find a place that was both safe to hide her older son and advantageous to fight in, she would surely have handled this situation in her usual calm and collected manner. But though she has eyes and ears everywhere in the palace and beyond, somehow none of them had been able to catch this attack until it's already upon them, and the only thing she can do is grab her child by the hand and run down into the passages below the palace, around the royal tomb, and hope that it will be a half-decent refuge. On top of that, said child is not exactly making things easy for her.

"Mother! Mother, where are we going? What happened? Where are we? _Mother!"_

"Shh, darling," Gyokuen mutters, her eyes flicking from Hakuyuu to the space in front of and behind them. "There's something dangerous loose on the upper levels, so we're going to stay down here until it's all gone."

"What's dangerous? Why can't it come down here?"

"You know how there are many, many people that your father fights when he leaves? Some of them came here to fight instead."

"But he's not here!"

"They know that. They can't defeat your father, so they want to hurt him by getting rid of his family instead."

She is about to explain further, but Hakuyuu, his heart jumping at the sudden realization that _they_ are the targets this time, shouts, "Why us?! Where's Hakuren?!"

"Hakuyuu, _hush._ Hakuren is going to be fine, and so are we," she assures him as they start to turn another corner. "The soldiers stationed above ground will get rid of them all before they can come anywhere near us, so we should be safe down here unti - !" She breaks off into a startled gasp, when around the corner lay four of the palace guards, their throats slashed and chests impaled and bodies left in a pile like trash on the stone floor.

The first thing Hakuyuu sees is one of the corpses' eyes, still stretched wide open and _staring,_ right at him, and he recoils with a shriek. Their freshly flowing blood is mixing and pooling at his and his mother's feet, and its heavy metallic odor fills his nose, sending a wave of nausea over him. " _Mother,"_ he whimpers, shaking and sick, gripping her hand like a lifeline. "What _happened?"_

"It seems I was wrong. Our unwelcome guests must be stronger than I assumed." The calmness of her voice stuns him, and he looks up to see no trace of disgust or horror on her face, only calculation. "Poor them," she goes on lightly, gently pulling her hand out of Hakuyuu's and stepping closer to the bodies. "But lucky us."

The closest one to her still has a broadsword buried in his ribs, and Gyokuen takes the hilt in one hand, braces her other hand against the man's armored shoulder, and yanks the sword out with a wet cracking sound that makes Hakuyuu's stomach twist. "Not exactly what I'm used to," she muses, examining the dripping blade. "It's a crudely made thing...But it will do."

"Are you going to fight them? Are they _here?!_ You said they couldn't come down here!"

"I never said that, Hakuyuu, you need to - " The sudden clatter of many heavy footsteps in the distance, coming closer with every second, makes her stop, and remark wryly, "Well, I suppose it does no good to tell you to be quiet now."

"M-Mother...They found us, are they going to kill us?" Hakuyuu asks frantically, tears welling up in his eyes. "I-I don't want to die, I - !"

"No, my darling boy, you have nothing to be afraid of," she says softly, soothingly, turning her head to look her terrified son in the face. "Always remember, you're never safer than when you're with me."

He's about to say something else, ask her what she means to do, but at that moment the troop of Gai soldiers tear around the corner in front of them, stopping short and howling with triumphant laughter when they see the empress and her son. The sight of them makes Hakuyuu's heart skip a beat before it starts pounding again. They look more like dogs than men: massive, with broad shoulders and wide jaws full of mismatched teeth, their blades and flails like long black claws, practically frothing with excitement as they leer at their prey.

 _These are the ones who are going to kill me!_ he realizes, and without thinking about it he's shrieking again. "Mother! _Mother!"_

That only makes the soldiers laugh harder. "Aww, look at the little warrior, hiding behind his mother's skirts! You think she's going to save you?!" one of them shouts as he brandishes his sickle.

"We tore your brother's guts out, pup!" roars another, grinning widely when Hakuyuu bursts into frightened tears. "And you and your bitch mother are next!"

"You're not strong enough for that," Gyokuen replies conversationally, sounding as if she'd like to laugh. "I was told that there were fifty of you that initially broke in...The ten of you are all that's left of that, aren't you?"

Some of them grimace, but the first soldier just yells even louder, showing off his sword. "And what good is that going to do you?! You're just Hakutoku's whore - I'll chop your head off, fuck your corpse, and send your brats to Hakutoku in pieces!"

While the other soldiers yell assent and Hakuyuu sobs even harder, Gyokuen doesn't even flinch, just grips the hilt of the sword tighter. "Hakuyuu," she says in a voice like steel, and her lips curve up into a wolf's smile. "Whatever happens, _don't look away."_

He can't think to do anything but obey as she lunges, almost too fast to see, and slices off the head of the soldier who had insulted her in one clean swing. Hakuyuu's shock freezes him in place, but the other soldiers' only shows on their faces for a second before it's replaced by rage, and before their comrade's head has even hit the floor they fall on the empress with everything they have, snarling and baying. _Like rabid dogs,_ Hakuyuu thinks again, frozen with fear, certain that they're both about to be killed and that they only have another moment -

But he's only half right. The fight - if he can really call it that - is over so quickly that he almost doesn't realize what's happening until it's done. All he can see in front of him is a blur of bright color moving through the dark-armored soldiers, who drop to the group one by one - in halves, missing heads and limbs - so fast that none of them can even scream. But their blood spatters the walls and runs on the floor and sprays Hakuyuu's face and front, hot and sticky, and before he knows it he's staring in horror at his mother standing there with the soldiers in pieces at her feet, spattered in their blood, that smile still plastered to her face. For a moment, she stays that way as if in a trance, as if she's forgotten where she is, while he is too frightened to make a sound. Then the smile drops from her face and the sword from her hand, and she turns to look at her son.

"Hakuyuu? Are you all right?"

He wants so badly to run to her, to bury himself in her arms, but he can't. "M-Mother," he whimpers again, not knowing what to do. She just got rid of the ones who wanted to kill them, who said that they had killed his baby brother, but even so...even so...

Gyokuen starts to approach him, but stops when he stumbles back away from her. "Hakuyuu," she says, surprised. "It's all right now. Don't be afraid of your mother." She crouches down and extends a hand to him. "Come on..."

Her sweet voice makes his nerve break. He tries to sprint the short distance to her, but in his haste he slips on the blood running over the flat stone, and she reaches quickly out and catches him before he can fall, pulling him safely into her arms. "There, now, I've got you," she coos, holding him closer as she stands up. "You're safe, I promise."

Hakuyuu tries to find a spot on her shoulder that isn't soaked, but gives up and presses his cheek into it anyway. His face is just as wet, it doesn't matter much. "Th-they said they killed Hakuren..."

"I told you, Hakuren is fine. I'm sure of it. I'll take you to him right now, if you want. We ought to go get cleaned up, anyway; we both look a mess," she says with a light laugh, as if she had just been playing in the grass with him instead of murdering ten people in cold blood.

"Okay," he murmurs, clinging onto her dress as she starts carrying him back the way they had come. There's no need to hide anymore.

~0~

The scent of blood doesn't fade as they go - the closer they get to their destination, the more slaughtered bodies they pass, and Hakuyuu hides his face against his mother's shoulder to keep from seeing them. (She doesn't object, so he guesses it's okay to look away now.) Soon enough, they come to one of the nondescript buildings at the very edge of the palace grounds, and she sets him down as they pass through the entrance.

He looks around the dim room, confused: it's entirely bare, just flat gray stone walls and floor. It's nowhere near big enough to make up the entire building. He turns to his mother for an explanation, but she is occupied. Gyokuen runs her hand over the wall until stopping on a square of stone that's (as far as he can see) no different than any of the others.

When she notices him staring, she explains, "There's no way of knowing when the royal family will be in danger, so this palace has all sorts of hidden safe places. I've come to know all of them quite well." With that, she smacks the stone with her palm, calling, "I know you two are in there. Come out now, I took care of everything, and I'd like my son back."

Hakuyuu is only confused for a moment more, and then jumps back with a yelp of surprise when that narrow section of the wall pulls back from the rest with a low grinding sound, revealing a small chamber hidden within, its near-complete darkness broken only by soft patches of light from the candles on the wall. He recognizes the man who steps out of it, but it just confuses him even more.

"Well," Ithnan says, looking Gyokuen up and down. " _You've_ had some fun, haven't you?"

Gyokuen laughs, hiding her mouth behind her sleeve. "Oh, I don't know; in hindsight, it didn't last long enough to be much fun at all."

"I'm sure." With how flat his voice is and how unreadable his eyes are, it's hard to tell whether he approves or not. He glances at Hakuyuu, who is still staring at them with wide eyes and trying to remember how to work his mouth, and then back at Gyokuen. "You couldn't take a minute to get some of that off?"

"I thought I'd better check on all of you first. Does it really matter?"

Ithnan rolls his eyes, and then pulls a cloth from the pocket of his robes and tosses it to Hakuyuu. "Prince Hakuyuu, here, wipe the blood away before it starts to dry," he says, and then addresses his friend again. "Now, we got rid of most of the intruders, and you polished off the rest. What do you propose we tell your husband?"

"I think that's something all three of us should discuss. Speaking of which..." Gyokuen leans over towards the doorway, calling into the darkness. "Falan, what are you still doing in there? Did you forget that he's not yours?"

Hakuyuu pauses in vigorously scrubbing his face (the blood is too warm and too sticky and caked on too thick, he just wants it _off)_ to look up as his mother's other friend steps reluctantly out of the room.

Falan doesn't look very happy, but then again, she rarely does. Cradled protectively in her arms is Hakuren, with puffy eyes and a tearstained face. For a moment, he's still and quiet, if whimpering softly. But the second he spots Gyokuen, he bursts into tears again, screaming and struggling in Falan's arms to try and reach his mother.

Falan rolls her eyes and tries to adjust her grip. "Thank you _so_ much, I _just_ got him calmed down," she complains.

Gyokuen ignores her at first, stepping forward to take her baby son and cuddle him close. "Shh, shhh, sweetheart, Mama's here. It's all right, Mama's here now." Hakuren clings to her tightly, not caring at all that she's covered in blood, and soon enough, his wails subside into soft mewling. She looks back up at Falan, and if Hakuyuu didn't know better, he would think there was a taunting edge to his mother's smile. "I see that Ithnan was doing all the heavy work, then."

Falan narrows her eyes. "I kept your son safe. Doesn't that at least warrant a 'thank you?'"

"Mm, I suppose," Gyokuen concedes, but changes the subject back immediately. "In any case, this shouldn't be hard to explain away. Toku might be a little wary of you and the other priests right now, but he can't deny that we just fought to protect the palace and the family."

Ithnan snorts. "It wasn't much of a fight. Common soldiers really are worthless. But I think this will get His Majesty to trust us a bit more. And he'll certainly take all this better if it's coming from his darling little wife, right?"

"Oh, not just me." Gyokuen looks down at Hakuyuu, who pauses to listen. "Hakuyuu? When your father comes back home, what are you going to tell him?"

Hakuyuu blinks. Shouldn't that be obvious? He knows perfectly well what's going on here. "Mother kept me safe. Mother's friends kept everyone safe."

"Very good," Gyokuen laughs, shifting Hakuren to one arm so she can pet Hakuyuu's hair. "You've been very brave today, darling boy. I'm proud of you."

Feeling ignored, Hakuren starts whimpering, pawing at his mother's face until she pays attention to him again. "Oh, and of course you too, sweetheart," she coos, kissing the top of his head.

"Mother?" Hakuyuu asks hesitantly. "What if...What will happen if more of them come back when Father's home?"

"Then _both_ your parents can grab a sword and give you one hell of a show, little prince," Ithnan says dryly.

"Ithnan, stop talking," Gyokuen says curtly, without looking at him or letting her smile falter. "Hakuyuu, don't worry about a thing. This isn't going to happen again. I won't let anyone hurt your father and I won't let anyone hurt you boys."

"You...You promise?"

Her hand trails down to cup his cheek. "Of course. There's nothing I won't do to protect this family."

~0~

His father returns home a week later.

Hakuyuu first notices from his bedroom window, where he can see the courtyard below and, if he listens very hard, hear some of what's going on down there. He notices his mother walking into view and perks up, and he's about to wave and call down to her, but a louder voice shouts her name first.

Before she has time to fully turn around, Hakutoku sprints across the courtyard and hugs his wife so hard she's lifted off the ground for a moment. "My jewel," he murmurs, holding her close. "They just told me what happened...Are you all right? Are the boys all right?"

Gyokuen smiles contentedly, closing her eyes as she lays her head on her husband's chest. "Don't worry, Toku, everything's fine. Don't think about it any more."

"I thought the palace's defenses were strong, but an entire troop broke through so easily..." Hakuyuu's surprised to see his father's hands shake slightly. "You could have...All three of you could have been killed. Jewel, I'm so sorry. I should have noticed the weak spots, I should have been here to protect you."

"I said, don't _think_ about it. What's happened, happened, and it's over now; no sense worrying about what we should have done," Gyokuen points out, not unkindly. She leans back to look her husband in the face. "Besides, we were never in any real danger. I'm strong enough to take care of myself, and to keep our family safe."

"I know, jewel. But my soldiers are strong as well, and I've lost too many of them. I can't help but worry about you."

"That's true; I didn't think of it that way. But still, I have friends on our side too. The priests were strong enough to fend even this many invaders off, and it was all over in barely ten minutes."

Hakutoku raises his eyebrows. "Is that so?"

"Oh, yes!" Gyokuen says happily. She steps back, taking her husband's hand. "Come, it'll be more comfortable in my room. And I'll tell you how everything happened."

" _You're_ oddly comfortable with that," Hakutoku remarks, allowing his wife to lead him away.

It takes Hakuyuu a moment to realize it, but a touch of sadness comes into his mother's smile. "It's strange, I know. But we _both_ know that this isn't the worst thing that's ever befallen my family."

His father's mouth presses into a tight line, but his voice is gentle. "Yes, jewel. I know."

As they leave his line of sight, Hakuyuu is confused. What could have happened, what haven't his parents told him that could be worse than what they went through last week?

He makes a mental note to ask about it at some point, but as it happens, the conversation that gives him the answer comes just that night, when Hakutoku stops by his bedroom to check on him, sitting beside him on his bed and asking him to explain his version of what had happened to them down in the tunnels.

~0~

"There were so many of them...I thought they'd kill us. I didn't want to die, I didn't know what to do," he murmurs, thinking that he'd start to cry if not for his father's arm around his shoulders. "I was crying so hard, and I couldn't move, I was so scared. But...it was like Mother didn't think that anything scary was going on at all. She just p-picked up that sword, and, and _smiled,_ a-and..."

Hakuyuu swallows and blinks hard, and Hakutoku gently finishes for him. "She killed them. You didn't expect her to do that, and it frightened you."

Hakuyuu nods. "She...She was _scary._ Like a different person. H-How could she do that?"

"If you mean that as in, _why_ did she kill them all, then that should be obvious: she had to protect you. In the moment, your life was the only thing that mattered to her. But if you mean that as in, how was she strong enough to do that? Your mother was trained in basic swordplay, but strength like that from a woman of her stature..." Hakutoku stops to think for a moment. "I remember I was out on the edges of Rakushou once, years ago, and a cart ran off the road and pinned a little girl underneath it. Her mother was even smaller than yours, but she rushed over and was able to lift that heavy cart up all on her own, long enough for her daughter to escape. When I saw what was going on, I'd thought to help, but that woman was so fast that it was all over before I could even move. The heat of the moment, combined with a parent's instinct to protect, apparently can grant one great strength."

"Really?"

"I assume that's what happened." A shadow passes over Hakutoku's face. "Hakuyuu...I don't know if anyone else would have told you, but not too long ago, your mother had two younger sisters and a younger brother, that lived in the palace with us."

Hakuyuu blinks, confused. He's never seen any of those people. "No, she didn't."

"Yes, she did, but this was before you were born. You never knew them. Just a few months before your mother had you, her sisters - your aunts Ankoku and Kuroko - disappeared out of nowhere. We never found them, we're...At this point, we have to assume they're both dead. Her brother Enshan couldn't handle losing them, and killed himself not long after. And your mother..." Hakutoku heaves a deep and tired sigh. "I've never seen anyone break down sobbing like that, and I never wanted to see her so devastated again, but then - "

"Grandmother Shuuen disappeared, too," Hakuyuu catches on, his eyes widening. It had been a whole year ago, right after Hakuren was born, and his memories are a little fuzzy. But he can still remember the beautiful, long-haired woman, who used to hold him in her lap and stroke his hair and sing to him. One day she'd been there, and the next, she was just gone. "Mother told me she wasn't coming back...She looked like she was going to cry, but she didn't."

"She doesn't like to upset you, so she tries to keep her feelings to herself around you. But that's how it was. Her siblings' deaths were bad enough, but her mother...Well. Shuuen never seemed to care much for anyone else - not even her other children, for that matter - but the two of them were incredibly close. And after she died, your mother was never the same." His father isn't looking at him, and Hakuyuu can't figure out his expression. "You said she seemed like a different person for a minute? I can understand that."

In the few moments of silence that follow those words, for the first time Hakuyuu wonders - really wonders - what would happen if one of his family were to die.

His father is powerful and brave, and the man he needs to become like if he's going to be a good king one day. He's never gone a day of his life without seeing his mother at least once, without hearing her voice or feeling her arms around him. He has no idea, he realizes, what he'd do without either of them. Even Hakuren...His baby brother can be more annoying than anything else, constantly trying to get into his things and follow him around everywhere. But still, he always smiles when he sees Hakuyuu and laughs when Hakuyuu (reluctantly) hugs him, and his mother insists that this means he loves his big brother. He'd miss that, he thinks. He'd miss their family so much. If his parents weren't strong enough to protect them all...

"I want to be different, too," Hakuyuu declares, and his father looks at him in surprise. "You say when you go, you're going to fight to protect everybody in our country, right? And Mother and her friends protected us here. I want to grow up like _that!"_

Hakutoku smiles, patting his son's shoulder encouragingly. "If that's the thing you're going to take away from this whole debacle, then I suppose you'll be all right. Your mother assured me you would be, but I had to be sure." He gets up and starts to leave. "Sleep well tonight, Hakuyuu. If anything else is troubling you, come to me or your mother about it."

"Okay, Father."

"And before I forget..." Hakutoku stops in the doorway and looks back at him one more time. "I had quite a long talk with your mother before, and something came up. Tomorrow when you go for sword training, you'll have a new teacher."

Hakuyuu perks up at that. "Really? Who?"

"Oh, I think I'll keep that a surprise," Hakutoku says with a small smile. "But I have a feeling that you'll learn well together."

~0~

With the constant threats of invasion by and skirmishes on the borders with Gou and Gai, Kou had been a severely militaristic kingdom even before Hakutoku decided to push further into conquest, and its royal family has held the centuries-long tradition of beginning their children's combat training very early on. As such, Hakuyuu has been learning to fight unarmed and to wield a sword for a year now. His trainers are all right, he supposes, but he hasn't become particularly close with any of them. So despite his father's reassurance, he isn't expecting very much from whoever's supposed to be teaching him now.

But, when he is escorted onto the dusty court by one of the servants and left to introduce himself alone, he finds that he doesn't need to wonder.

"Surprised, Hakuyuu?" Gyokuen asks with a smile, testing the weight of a _jian_ in her hand.

For a few seconds, he stares. He's not used to seeing his mother in just plain white training clothes, and more importantly, he had been under the impression that her sword-wielding would be a one-time occurrence. " _You're_ teaching me now?"

"Yes, I've thought about it, and I've decided that you'll be better off learning swordplay from me from now on. I told you once that I learned from my mother, didn't I?"

Now that she mentions it, she had, right when he'd been starting out a year ago. "You said you thought it was boring," he reminds her, raising an eyebrow.

Gyokuen looks somewhat puzzled, but her smile doesn't falter. "Well, if I did say something like that, I must have changed my mind. You don't mind me replacing your old trainers, do you?"

He shakes his head. "Do you know where to start?"

"Oh, there's very little I don't know," she laughs. "But I talked it over with your father, just to be certain. As of your last lesson, you were stuck on that new set of parrying techniques, weren't you?"

"Yeah."

"All right. Shall I demonstrate for you first?" When he nods, she continues, "Step back a little bit."

He obeys. But when he sees his mother once again take her stance and raise the sword, the sunlight glinting harshly off the steel blade, a part of him is thrown back to those dark catacombs. His stomach churns, a musty taste fills his mouth, and he lets out a small, fearful noise despite himself.

Noticing his discomfort, Gyokuen pauses and turns to him. "What's wrong?" she asks, and when he's silent, she guesses. "Ah, I see. Did I leave a bad first impression back then?"

"...Maybe."

"That's all right. Take a deep breath and relax. Are you afraid I'll hurt you, the way I hurt them?"

He swallows, trying to figure out how to explain that it's not the idea of his mother turning on him that scares him, but the idea of her turning so violent at all, out of absolutely nowhere. "I...I don't know."

"There's nothing to be afraid of," she says gently, and holds the sword out in front of her. "This isn't a tool for pointless slaughter, Hakuyuu. I would never raise my blade to hurt you. All my life, I have only ever fought to protect what I love. And you told your father last night that that's what you wanted, didn't you?"

That's right, he did. All at once, Hakuyuu feels ashamed that he was scared, and he swallows hard and raises his sword in imitation of his mother. "Yes."

"Perfect. If that is your intention, then nothing you do with this sword can be wrong. Forget doubt and fear, and remember what _you_ want. Can you do that?"

"Yes!"

She smiles. "That's my good boy. Now, you watch closely, and do exactly as I do."

 **~0~**


	2. Chapter 2

" _Are you sure you want to see what's on the other side? Be sure. Say yes, and I'll show you the way to the people who've been hiding themselves from you all along."_

\- Changeling: The Lost

~0~

 _Years later..._

Hakuyuu knows that he has a lot to learn, that he can't reasonably expect to have seen everything there is to see in regards to war at his young age. But he has to admit, with each story he hears of these dungeons rising up all over the world, and the powers they grant to those who can conquer them, he becomes more simultaneously stunned, amazed, and skeptical.

"Aniue, look at this. No way it can all be true." Sprawled upside down on his brother's bed, legs hooked over the headboard, Hakuren scowls at the pages of the book in his hands. "If _anyone_ should be getting attention from seven divinely beautiful ladies just for existing, it should be _me,_ not this random weird kid!"

Hakuyuu doesn't look up from the scroll of Torran he's trying to study at his desk, nor does he bother reminding his brother that he is supposed to be doing the same. "Hakuren, the only thing we know for certain about this Sinbad boy is that he conquered dungeons, and that's just because there's hundreds of people from Partevia and Reim confirming the story. I think we can assume that _everything_ except that is just exaggeration."

Hakuren snorts. "I'd like to meet this kid and see what he's actually capable of. Wouldn't you?"

"I suppose."

"I bet I could take him. Show him what a real warrior can do, right?"

"Mm, I'm sure you could."

"You're not even listening to me, are you?"

"I'm _half_ listening."

"That's not - !" A series of rapid knocks on the bedroom door makes both brothers look up. Hakuren rolls over so he's lying right side up, on his stomach. "Come in."

The door opens, and Kouen pokes his head inside. "Your Highnesses! I...I hope I'm not disturbing you?"

"Of course not," Hakuyuu assures him, turning around fully towards him. "What is it?"

Kouen moves to stand ramrod straight in the doorway. "His Majesty sent me to tell you, he wants to see the three of us in the throne room as soon as possible. He says he has an important mission for us and we are to be briefed on it right away."

"Well, that's as good a reason to get out of bed as I can think of," Hakuren says, snapping the book shut and tossing it over his shoulder onto his brother's pillows. "Aniue and I look all right, don't we? Like, presentable?"

"You both look perfect!" Kouen blurts out. His cheeks turn slightly pink, but he doesn't say anything else.

Hakuyuu smiles, carefully rolling up the Torran scroll before standing up. "In that case, let's all get going. We don't want to keep Father waiting."

~0~

The three of them walk into the throne room as they always do - Hakuyuu striding in front, Hakuren at his right hand and Kouen at his left, through the rows of straight-backed guards on either side of the room - and they kneel as one before the waiting emperor's throne.

"Father," Hakuyuu begins, loud and clear. "We came as soon as we could. What would you have us do?"

"I am sure that you three have all heard the reports from the rest of the world, of the Metal Vessels and the power they wield. I have been keeping track of them, as well, and concluded that the Kou Empire cannot afford to go without this power and lag behind other nations for any longer. As such, I have consulted with the generals, with the royal priests, and with my empress - " Hakutoku gestures to the slightly smaller throne beside his own, from which Gyokuen smiles at them and bows her head slightly - "and have decided that the best candidates to seek out Metal Vessels for Kou's use are the three of you."

For a moment, all three of them are struck silent with surprise. Hakuyuu is the first to shake it off. "Father, we are honored, and we will gladly accept the mission. But if I may ask, would you not be a more fitting candidate? You are our emperor, after all."

Hakutoku smiles. "I may revisit the idea, some day. But I feel that for now, my place is here looking after Rakushou. And there is no one in this empire more suited to the task than our princes, who have already proven themselves on the battlefield."

"You boys are the pride of our empire, after all," Gyokuen chimes in. "And you're still young. There's plenty of room for you to become stronger, and this will certainly help."

Hakuyuu decides he can understand that. Beside him, Hakuren is beaming, and that determined expression is setting into Kouen's face as he bows his head. "Thank you, Your Majesties. I promise you, I will do everything I can to ensure that Princes Hakuyuu and Hakuren receive this power."

Hakutoku raises his eyebrows. "You understand that you're a contender to obtain a Djinn too, don't you, Kouen?"

Kouen's head snaps up, his eyes wide. "Y-Your Majesty?"

"You're not just going along as a bodyguard, Kouen," Hakutoku explains. "You are just as worthy as any of my children, and you would serve Kou with a Metal Vessel just as well."

For a moment, Hakuyuu can see the wheels turning in his cousin's head as he processes the words. Then Kouen's forehead is pressed to the floor so fast that Hakuyuu didn't even see him bow. "Thank you, Your Majesty! I won't let you down!"

Gyokuen hides a charmed giggle behind her sleeve, and Hakutoku grins. "None of you ever have before," he says. "Now, since the dungeons have begun to appear, there haven't been any in Kou Empire territory. However, with the help of the royal priests, we can now raise them specially for the family to conquer."

Hakuren's eyebrows shoot up into his hairline. "Seriously?! You can do that?"

"Of course we can," Gyokuen says, leaning back against her throne. "Our Judal has been trained very hard, and he has become just strong enough to try his hand at raising a dungeon."

"That little boy?" Hakuyuu asks, somewhat taken aback. He has seen the child before, at Gyokuen's side, surrounded by a group of priests, and on occasion, playing with Hakuryuu, but he has never spoken to him. He knows that the young Magi is supposed to be a great and unique existence (gods know that's all the priests can say about him), but still, he's somewhat startled at the reminder. "You're sure he can do something so massive at his age?"

"Oh, yes, easily. He's quite excited about finally getting to try, actually. Only a Magi's power can call forth a dungeon; if we could do it ourselves, we'd have had some long before now. We plan to have one ready for you boys to challenge within three days, so take this time to prepare."

"We will," Hakuyuu assures them. He rises to his feet and folds his hands respectfully, Kouen and Hakuren copying the movement beside him. "Father, Mother, thank you for this chance. I promise, we will return much stronger for it."

~0~

"Okay, now," Hakuren muses, poring over the map as his brother and cousin mount their horses. "It should take us a couple days to reach this place on horseback, but we don't know exactly how long it should take us to actually clear the thing. Still no solid reports?"

"Hakuren, we're at the gates about to leave," Hakuyuu points out, tightening his saddlebag one more time, while a few feet away, Kouen finishes his usual lecture to Koumei about how he's expected to act while they're away. "If any such thing arrives, it'll be a bit late."

"Based on what we've heard, we shouldn't have to spend more than two or three days actually inside the dungeon, Hakuren-sama," Kouen adds. (Koumei leans against the wall and falls back into a doze as soon as his brother's attention is off him.) "It's just a rough estimate, but that seems to be the successful conquerors' shared experience."

"All right...So we'll be back in a week, tops. Considering how long we're usually away, not so bad."

"I suppose so, but do try to be back before too long," a voice gently admonishes from behind them. Hakuyuu turns to see his mother coming through the palace gates toward them, with Hakuryuu perched on her hip and Hakuei trotting along at her other side. Gyokuen smiles at him as she walks up to his horse. "We're very proud of you boys, but I really do prefer to have you safe at home."

"Yeah!" Hakuryuu readily agrees, reaching over to pat the horse's flank and his brother's leg; it's unclear which he was initially aiming for. "Come back soon, aniue!"

Hakuyuu smiles, and leans over to ruffle his little brother's hair. "We will, don't worry. While we're gone, you be sure to work hard!"

"Yeah!" Hakuryuu shouts, throwing his fists up, both with such enthusiasm that Gyokuen laughs lightly. Meanwhile, Hakuei steps forward and starts handing drawstring cloth bags up to all three of them.

"Hey, thanks, Ei!" Hakuren said, turning the bag over in his hand with interest. "What's this?"

Hakuei smiles. "Mother said that the trip is very long, so I made you all lots of manju to eat on the way!"

" _Oh,"_ Hakuren says, the smile freezing on his face as he reconsiders the contents of his gift bag. "Oh, yeah, that sounds great!"

"Yes, thank you so much, Princess!" Kouen says sincerely, with a rare look of both surprise and elation on his face.

"I hope you like them!" Hakuei replies, equally happy and equally oblivious to the identical looks of terror in her older brothers' eyes.

"W-Well, then," says Hakuyuu, as Hakuei returns to their mother's side. "We should set off, if we're all ready. Are we?"

"Yes!" Hakuren and Kouen shout in unison.

"In that case, we'll get going!" Hakuyuu calls back, and then turns to speak more softly and quickly to the other three. "Hakuryuu, be good for Mother; Hakuei, look after Ryuu while we're gone; and Mother, try not to miss us too much."

"Oh, we won't," she replies with a smile. When Hakuryuu gives her a distraught look, she cuddles him closer and reassures him, "Just a joke, darling, don't worry."

"All right then, here we go!" Hakuren yells, giving his horse a kick and bolting off through the gates. "Love you! Bye!" he calls over his shoulder.

"Hakuren-sama! Please slow down!" Kouen shouts, and both he and Hakuyuu urge their own horses into the same gallop. Within moments, their family fades from sight behind them.

~0~

"Just like I said before - I'll slow down when I'm _dead!"_ Hakuren hollers, slicing the next huge-headed, bat-winged lizard creature that flies towards him in half with one mighty swing of his sword.

"How many times are you going to say it?!" Hakuyuu snaps, and would have said more, but the biggest of the creatures drowns him out with an earsplitting screech and dives straight for his face. With a grunt, Hakuyuu brings his own sword up just in time to wedge it between the thing's oversized jaws. It squeals and thrashes wildly, hot breath and slaver flying out into Hakuyuu's face, until one hard thrust upward drives the blade straight through its eyeless head, and it goes instantly still and silent. With a quick swing of his sword, he throws the body off the blade, and turns to the others, panting hard. "Was that the last of them?"

A few feet away, three of the lizards fly around a considerably battered Kouen, intending to attack him all at once, but with three clean swings of his sword, they all fall in pieces to his feet. "Those were, I think."

"All right, then."

Hakuyuu stands straighter, wiping his blade clean and scanning the area to make sure they really have cleared this room. When all he sees on the ground are reptilian body parts and puddles of sticky pink blood, he turns his eyes up to his companions. Both are disheveled and soaked in sweat and blood (some of it theirs, some of it not). Hakuren's grin hasn't faltered in the slightest. Kouen looks worse for wear than they do, with one eye having been hit and swelled shut and one leg being heavily favored over the other, but he does his best to stand at attention and await Hakuyuu's next order.

"The tunnel we got here through caved in, but I think there's a door over there that we can use to get out," he says, pointing over the vast expanse of the room to the distinct gleam of blue metal embedded in the far stone wall. "Unless there's something else here that we're supposed to see instead?"

They look around, but see nothing but uneven, rocky ground around them, and above, only stone walls that soar endlessly upward, through the thickest layer of gray clouds that Hakuyuu has ever laid eyes on. Hakuren looks at his brother and shrugs. Hakuyuu nods, and starts to walk for the door, still keeping a watchful eye out for any surprises the dungeon might decide to spring on them, Kouen and Hakuren following at his heels.

As it happens, the metal glint did in fact come from a door protruding from the stone, but one lacking any kind of handle or knob. It takes the three of them and a considerable amount of time to pry it open and slip inside, but the second they all do, the door vanishes into the flat stone wall as if it were never there to begin with, leaving them standing there in a narrow, low-ceilinged tunnel illuminated only by the weak light of the small torches that line the walls. The air is hot and musty, and Hakuyuu catches himself thinking that he much preferred being in the cool and open room before, even with the slight drawback of the flock of bloodthirsty lizards with wings trying to eat them in it.

The tunnel's path slopes gently, and all Hakuyuu can see when he looks down it is darkness, not an exit or a new room. "I suppose there's only one way to go from here."

"Suppose so," Hakuren agrees, and as if that is their cue, all three of them start the long trek down the tunnel. The darkness and silence are unnerving, and go on, in Hakuyuu's opinion, for far too long. Every torch, every inch of wall, every step, seems exactly the same. Before long (or is it? He can't tell at all how much time has passed), there is only impenetrable darkness in front of and behind him. The silence and heat press in around him, stifling him, and all of a sudden it's a struggle to remember how to breathe normally.

How many steps have they taken? How many torches have they passed? How much farther do they have to go until there's an end?

 _Is..._ Is _there an end?_ he wonders suddenly, his blood running cold. _This is a dungeon, there must be some sort of challenge. It feels like hours...No, only a few minutes...It can't have been_ days, _can it? No, no...Did I make the wrong choice? Was there something I didn't notice before?! I can't have...I can't - !_

"Aniue!" He jumps at the sound of Hakuren's voice, and turns to meet his brother's concerned eyes. Sweat still runs down Hakuren's face, and his fingertips rub the hilt of his sword in the way they only do when he's nervous, but it seems that he's holding it together a little bit better then Hakuyuu is. "Take a deep breath. You too, Kouen. We're okay."

Hakuyuu turns to look at Kouen. The boy's face has turned the color of sour milk, and he stares ahead, not hearing Hakuren's words, seemingly even more lost in thought than his older cousin had been. Hakuyuu reaches over to snap his fingers in front of the boy's face, and he startles, turning to look at them with wide eyes. "I-I'm sorry...I just - !"

"It's okay," Hakuren says again. "What were you guys thinking just now? Aniue?"

"I...I was thinking that maybe this tunnel doesn't end, just goes on forever," Hakuyuu admits, although it sounds somewhat foolish to say it out loud.

"And?" Hakuren presses.

"And...That I had made a mistake. Put all of us in danger." Of all the actions he could take, as a commander, as crown prince, as eldest son, that is the one thing Hakuyuu knows that he _must not do._

"Exactly," Hakuren says, startling Hakuyuu and Kouen both. "I was starting to freak out myself, a little bit, and then I looked over at you two - you know, just to make sure I wasn't the only one. You both looked like you were about to lose it, but I think that's exactly what the dungeon wants you to do."

"What?"

"Think about it. The last room tested our ability to fight, our bodies. Now here, it looks like our minds are being tested. Like, whether we can stay calm and controlled even when we're afraid."

"I see," Hakuyuu murmurs. "That does make sense."

"Oh..." Kouen casts his gaze to the ground, all of a sudden looking very ashamed of himself. "You're right...I was just about to panic before you talked. I was going to run, but I don't know what I was thinking, I just wanted to try and get _out_ of here. I'm sorry."

"Don't worry about it. Aniue was freaking out too, and I - Oh, hey! There's our ending!" Hakuren says happily, pointing up ahead.

Looking up, Hakuyuu sees that he's right: finally, the tunnel has broken off into a fork. But when they hurry closer, they see that both paths quickly dead-end, into two stone statues in the shape of sharp-toothed, winged lions. Between them is a large, flat tablet, lit by two more torches on either side, and engraved in what Hakuyuu recognizes as Torran.

Kouen squints at it. "What does this say? I bet you could read it faster than me."

However, Hakuren looks just as lost. "I dunno, I think my brilliant contributions to this mission end here. I was never too great at memorizing a whole different language. Aniue, on the other hand..."

He starts to gesture for Hakuyuu to take a look, but stops when he sees his brother already crouched before the tablet, his mind already racing. Torran has always come easily to Hakuyuu, though he suspects it is largely due to how he had eagerly drank in every bit of the fascinating new knowledge. He smiles, fairly certain that he's got it and understands what they have to do next. But as he has seen the palace tutors do, he decides to take advantage of the teaching moment and pose the question to his younger cousin instead.

"Kouen? Can you tell at all what this says?" Kouen looks hesitant, so Hakuyuu adds, "It's okay if you can't, just give it a go."

"O-Okay..." Kouen kneels next to him, peering at the rows of small characters. "It reads a bit like a poem. I-I think it says...There's two paths, and only one way is right, a-and something about needing to lie to enter?"

"Close. The whole thing reads, 'One path leads to glory / One path leads to death / Glory's path speaks only truth / Death speaks only lies / Speak 'enter' to begin / But ask one question and no more.'" Hakuyuu stands, looking from one statue to another. " _Enter."_

At the command, the eyes of both statues light up like embers at night. " _Speak, would-be king,"_ two gravelly voices say. " _Hear our voices, and decide your path."_

"So you have to decide which only tells the truth and which only lies based on just one question." Hakuren rubs his chin thoughtfully, deliberately keeping his voice too flat to be mistakenly interpreted as that one question. "You do that how."

"More easily than you think." Hakuyuu clears his throat, then asks, loudly and clearly: "What is my given name?"

From their right, one gravelly voice says, " _Hakuya."_

And from their left, the other says, " _Hakuyuu."_

Hakuyuu's smile broadens, while Hakuren laughs and Kouen lets out a surprised, "Oh!"

"That's that, then." He points at the left-hand statue. "We choose this path!"

The second the words are out of his mouth, the statue vanishes, as does the wall behind it, revealing a small slope upward and a wide, brightly lit room not unlike the one they had left behind. All three of them run out into it, to find that it contains only an enormous metal door in the shimmering crystal wall. However, unlike the last, this one looks more traditional, designed to push open easily with the proper force.

"So this must be the way to the treasure room, right?" Hakuren says, wiping the sweat from his brow as the they step up to examine the door. "Didn't take us too long to get here, all in all. Honestly, I'm a little underwhelmed."

"Don't let the Djinn hear you saying that," Hakuyuu warns. "I don't think he'll want a master who barges in and starts off the conversation by insulting his home."

"True. But traveling around with one of us _must_ be more comfortable than hanging around in this cramped old place for another..." The thought brings Hakuren up short, and all of a sudden he looks equal parts startled and concerned. "Hey, how long have these Djinn been stuck in these dungeons anyway?! ... _Could_ they get out by themselves if they wanted, or are they _actually_ stuck? Where did they even come from? Where were they before?"

Kouen's eyes go wider with every word out of his cousin's mouth, and his mouth opens and shuts as Hakuren talks, before he finally gets to slip in his opinion. "W-Well...Why don't we ask the Djinn? If you're going to become his master, then surely he'll have to answer you if you ask!"

"Well, we'll never know unless we get a move on," Hakuyuu says, squaring his hips and bracing both hands against the enormous double doors. "Give me a hand here, will you?"

"Sure, aniue," Hakuren says, at the same time Kouen says, "Yes, Hakuyuu-sama!" Both of the younger princes take similar positions on either side of Hakuyuu.

"All right, on three, everyone push," Hakuyuu instructs. "One, two, _three!"_

The three of them throw all their weight at the doors, and for a moment, it doesn't budge one bit. Then the stone starts to give under their effort, and slowly but steadily it scrapes across the floor until the doors finally give way. Blinding golden light floods through the opening, and Hakuyuu doesn't hesitate. He bolts headlong past the doors, and hears Hakuren and Kouen scrambling after him.

In that instant, he cannot see a thing, and his eyes burn under the piercing light. But it's gone just as soon as it came, and all of a sudden he is blinking to clear his vision to the place before him. His eyes widen when he can fully take in the sight of the treasure room. It is huge and perfectly round, constructed of shining bronze pillars that soar so far into the impossibly bright blue sky that he can't see the tops. The floor he's standing on is made of gleaming white-gold tile, so beautiful that even he in the crown prince's royal armor feels dirty by comparison. But he can barely even see it under the veritable mountains of treasure piled all around him: gold coins and goblets, chests inlaid with huge emeralds and rubies, silver jewelry with diamonds and sapphires in intricate shapes and designs, and countless more. All the likes of which he could never have imagined, even among the palace's most priceless treasures.

He only realizes he'd been staring open-mouthed at it all when the long, low sound of Hakuren's impressed whistle breaks him out of his trance.

"No wonder everybody and their brother is trying to get at these places," Hakuren says. "Walk away with all this and you could probably buy your own country."

"True." Hakuyuu's eyes land on the very center of the room, where a small marble altar stands apart from the rest of the room's riches, and upon it sits an unassuming metal statuette of a man with a fox's head and limbs. "And with the Djinn's power, one could protect that country forever."

Hakuyuu strides forward, paying no mind to the riches around him any more. Noticing that Kouen is still entranced, he snaps his fingers to get the younger boy's attention, as Hakuren had done before. Once again, his brother and cousin flank him as he steps up to the altar and takes a closer look the statuette.

"Hakuyuu-sama, do you think it's a trap of some sort?" Kouen wonders, brows furrowing as he scrutinizes it.

"No," Hakuyuu says. He recognizes the eight-pointed star carved into the chest, just as the stories mentioned that there were. "We've passed the test. This is what we came for."

With that, he reaches out and takes the statuette in his hand, and the second his fingers close around the metal, the star glows white-hot and the whole thing seems to explode into scalding light. He shouts in surprise and jumps back, momentarily unable to keep his eyes open. When he can again, his heart freezes in his chest at the astounding form that has burst from the tiny statuette. Never before has he felt so _small_ before another living being as he does before this one.

The Djinn is colossal, at least twenty times Hakuyuu's size, with a thick blue pelt and golden chains draped over his shoulders and crossed arms. Though his body is somewhat humanoid, Hakuyuu can't tell whether his giant head is shaped more like a fox's or a lion's. He looks down at the three humans below him, sizing up his choices.

"I am Agares, Djinn of Fortitude and Creation," he says, and though the tone is calm and steady, the powerful voice rattles Hakuyuu down to his bones. "Who are you? Who among you will become king?"

Hakuyuu looks to his brother and then to his cousin, and then quickly genuflects, bowing his head. A small thrill of relief runs through him when he hears both of them following his lead; the last thing he wants is for any of them to incur the Djinn's wrath, and a creature like this deserves deferential treatment in any case.

"Agares-sama, I am Ren Hakuyuu, firstborn son of Emperor Hakutoku and Empress Gyokuen, and crown prince of the Kou Empire."

From his right side, he hears: "I am second prince Ren Hakuren, brother of Hakuyuu!"

From his left, more subdued: "And I am fourth prince Ren Kouen...head of the branch family."

He hears Agares make a low, contemplative noise at the back of his throat. "Up on your feet, humans. How do you intend to wield my power, if you cannot even stand and look me in the face?"

He hears Hakuren make a disgruntled noise, but he lets the remark roll off his back as the three of them stand up again. The ability to remain calm and polite in all situations is a requirement of the future emperor, he had observed long ago. "I apologize, Agares-sama. We meant only to show you respect."

Agares nods, finding this acceptable. "A good sign, I suppose. Now, I shall repeat my question only once: Who will become king?"

"That choice is best left to you, I believe," Hakuyuu says. "It is your power, after all. No one can decide better than you who should wield it."

"Is that so?"

"Yes, Agares-sama."

Agares' long muzzle stretches into something that Hakuyuu supposes is a smile. "Just Agares will do, Prince Hakuyuu. Bear in mind that the Djinn and their master are meant to be equal partners."

With that, Agares leans over to more closely inspect the three princes, starting with Kouen. The boy's eyes widen, taken aback at suddenly coming face-to-snout with the Djinn. But to Hakuyuu's pride, he swallows a squeak of surprise and looks Agares in the eyes with a steely expression.

"Mm...You are quite young, but you are strong. Stronger than any of your peers, I'll wager," Agares muses. "The rukh around you burns with drive to succeed and prove your worth, though I must say it is somewhat lacking in pride. I suspect that you have seen more bloodshed by now than most boys would."

"That's true, A-Agares," Kouen confirms, stumbling slightly over addressing the mighty creature on a first-name basis. "But that is my duty as a prince of Kou. I bear it proudly."

"Yes, you do. I can see it in your eyes," Agares agrees, before moving over to Hakuyuu's other side, towering over his brother. "And you...What was your name again, prince?"

"Ren Hakuren!" Hakuren announces, punctuated with a mighty chest thump. "Pleased to finally meet you!"

Hakuyuu can't be sure, but he thinks Agares looks amused. "I can see that. You, unlike your cousin, are a man of boundless pride, are you not? Anyone whose eyes shine like yours do must be. And your rukh...You have the most honest rukh of any king candidate I've met. Some compatriots of mine have said that that is the best sort of king, honest and kind."

If Hakuren was smiling before, then he is positively beaming now. "And what would _you_ say?"

Agares seems to grin, leaning in closer to Hakuren...before stopping, his mouth closing and his thick brows furrowing in an expression that Hakuyuu does not understand. He takes one quick sniff of the air and growls, in a very different tone than before, "I would say that I am still undecided."

He leaves Hakuren looking confused and insulted at the shift in tone, as he moves on to his last remaining choice. Hakuyuu has just as little idea what happened as his brother, but he does not allow his cool and composed mask to falter. Even as Agares leans in to his face, closer even than he came to the other two, he refuses to look away from the Djinn's intense red eyes, tries not to even blink too much.

"You, Crown Prince...You appear to be the very model of a great king. You have the eyes of a warrior, and your superior strength and valor are clear as day. You have led yourself and your family here and arrived unscathed, and I assume that you have led armies before and intend to lead your empire in the future, am I correct?"

"Yes, Agares," Hakuyuu replies levelly, still trying to figure out what could be going on behind those eyes. "I will succeed my father as emperor, and from there I will guide the whole world into eternal peace. It is my destiny to do so. Is that a purpose you would be willing to lend me your power for?"

Agares looks at him for a long while, pondering what to answer. Hakuyuu can feel the eyes of his brother and cousin on him as well, but he forces himself to stay still, to wait. And finally, after what seems like forever, the Djinn speaks again, his voice low and grave.

"On the outside, you and your brother look to be perfect examples of king candidates. However...I cannot overlook the darkness that that shining veneer may hide."

"Eh?! What's that supposed to mean?!" Hakuren bursts out, his fingers automatically closing around his sword hilt. Hakuyuu's hand immediately shoots out to grab his brother's wrist, still refusing to break eye contact with the Djinn.

"Forgive me, Agares, but I don't understand what you're saying. I swear on my honor, we are are hiding nothing from you."

Agares narrowed his eyes. "Most other Djinn would not notice this, I expect; most don't have noses as sharp as mine. And of those, perhaps some would not care. But I...I recognize a scent like yours from Alma Torran. You have the rukh and blood of the traitor."

"What?!" Hakuren shouts again. Kouen had previously been glancing between the three of them and looking completely lost for the whole exchange, but now his eyes flare with indignant rage.

"You have no right to say that! My cousins are the most noble and loyal men you will ever have the privilege of meeting, and they have done nothing to deserve such an insult!" he yells, so loud his voice cracks somewhat. Almost the second the words are out of his mouth and the reality of what he's just done catches up with him, his face goes milk-white and its anger is replaced with wide-eyed surprise and alarm. But even so, he doesn't take any of it back, and doesn't cower when Agares' lips pull back into a sardonic smile.

" _Your_ loyalty is admirable, boy," he remarks. "You would risk yourself to vouch for these two?"

"Y-Yes!" Kouen half says, half gulps. "None of us have done you any wrong, but you ought to explain yourself! What is Alma Torran? Who are you talking about?"

"Kouen is right, Agares," Hakuyuu adds. "With all due respect, you cannot accuse my brother and I of something without telling us why. And if there is any danger you are privy to that we are not, I believe we should know about it, whether you wish to partner with us or not."

Agares crosses his arms, staring down at the elder princes with the same look of deep contemplation from before. Hakuyuu wonders again what it is that he is searching for in their faces.

"I am unsure of how much I can tell you without overstepping the bounds set upon me by my Great King," he begins, slowly. "We who are made of the rukh cannot reveal the inner workings of our worlds. But...Where I and my comrades come from, was once a flourishing world. We lived under the rule of a wise and benevolent king, who even now commands my loyalty, and who intended to create a world where all beings could live in harmony and equality. But his most trusted warrior betrayed him, and led both him and our entire home world to death and ruin. I...Even a thousand years later, I still remember her essence. And now, I sense it in you, though I know neither how nor why."

"Are you _serious?!"_ Hakuren screeched, ignoring Hakuyuu's admonishing shout of his name. "You're really going to throw aniue and I out of the running for a Metal Vessel because we kind of remind you of some backstabbing asshole from _a thousand years ago?!"_

" _Hakuren!"_ Hakuyuu snarls again, struggling to hang on to his own composure. "Control yourself!"

"But he - !"

"I don't care!"

Agares makes a low murmuring noise at the back of his throat. "It may be just my bias, but you even look a little like her. She hid her cruelty and bloodlust behind a bright smile and kind eyes; nobody ever saw her coming. I hope you will forgive me, princes, but I cannot in good conscience risk making the same mistake twice."

"Wha - ?!" Hakuren splutters with incoherent outrage, while Hakuyuu racks his brain trying to find some way to convince Agares that they are trustworthy. They have come all this way, everyone is counting on them, they cannot possibly lose Kou the power of a Djinn for something this _ridiculous -_

"I cannot lend my power to either of you. However, you had the foresight to bring along a perfectly suitable alternative." Agares leans down once again over Kouen, who now looks thoroughly confused and dismayed, and booms, "My decision is made! Ren Kouen, you will become my king!"

Hakuyuu hadn't thought it possible for Kouen's face to go any paler, but it does. " _What?_ But, but I was only here t-to...Agares, please pick one of my cousins! Th-They are far more worthy than - !"

But Agares' roaring laughter drowns his protests out. "Ah, I see that you are still a child in some ways, after all, even if you do have a man's strong heart and cold eyes. Perhaps one day I will see you grow into them."

Agares' third eye begins to open wider, and a thrill of panic runs over Hakuyuu when he realizes that the time they have to speak with the Djinn is very nearly up, and there are still a thousand questions left unanswered. "Agares, wait! What did you mean before; where did you all come from? What is Alma Torran?"

But before any of them can utter another word, the Djinn's body bursts into what Hakuyuu can only describe as liquid sunlight, and pours itself into the spaulder on Kouen's shoulder. A second later, the entire treasure room disappears into the same blinding white light that they'd entered through, and for a few nauseating moments, Hakuyuu is lost in the sickening sensation of weightlessness, blindness, plummeting through space and time. It takes him a few moments of blank staring and waiting for his spinning head to slow down to normal to register that he is back outside the dungeon, his feet on solid ground and the afternoon breeze cooling his face.

He blinks once, then twice, until the haze in his vision clears, and he sees that he's standing at the bottom of a very deep, perfectly square pit in the earth, where the dungeon must have been moments before. It feels vaguely like his whole body is asleep instead of just an arm or leg, but he turns slowly anyway. His eyes land on Kouen, who is still gawking at his new Metal Vessel as if he's not quite sure what's just happened.

"Ha...Hakuyuu-sama...I didn't think...I-I mean, I _didn't_ mean - !"

"Relax, Kouen!" shouts a boisterous voice above them, and they both look up to see Hakuren sitting atop the pile of treasure, at least three times Hakuyuu's height, that the dungeon had left behind, grinning like the cat that got the canary. "You did good in there, be proud of yourself!"

"But I - "

"You talk as if you stole something from us," Hakuyuu says, going over to lay a reassuring hand on his cousin's shoulder. The spaulder still feels warm with the Djinn's touch, as if it's been left out in the hot sun for hours. "I know what you went in there thinking would happen, despite what Father said. But just because it didn't go the way you thought it should, doesn't mean it went wrong. Hakuren is right: you earned a Djinn's approval and his dungeon's Metal Vessel. And if that's more than Hakuren and I were able to do, then all the better, not just for you, but for everyone. We have the whole empire counting on us, after all."

Kouen swallows, and stand straighter. "You're right, Hakuyuu-sama. I _am_ grateful for this, after all. I promise, I will use this power to the best of my ability!"

"Aw, we already knew that!" Hakuren says, jumping up and sliding down the mountain of treasure to clap his cousin on the back. "Can't wait to see what you do with it!"

"Agreed, Prince Hakuren." All three of them jump, and look up to see a pair of veiled priests floating above the pit on one of their carpets. "Apologies for startling you, Your Highnesses. Her Majesty asked us to wait here for your return; we assumed that you would need some assistance in carrying the spoils of your victory back home."

"Hey, thanks! That sounds great!" Hakuren calls back, waving happily up at them, and then turns to Hakuyuu. "Does this mean we get to ride on the carpet?"

"No," Hakuyuu says, though he smiles anyway. "We're riding. Even if we would all fit, how else are the poor horses supposed to get home?"

Hakuren heaves a dramatic sigh. "I guess you're right," he says, looking at the flat, thickly packed earth walls. "All right. Let's get climbing."

With some difficulty, the three of them manage to scale the walls, and head over to where they'd tied the horses before jumping into the dungeon. After a few minutes spent making sure that the animals are sufficiently fed and watered to handle the journey home, they hop on and start trotting, with the treasure-loaded carpet floating about twenty feet above them.

"Well," Hakuren sighs resignedly, after a few minutes of riding in silence. "I suppose there's only one thing left I have to do."

Hakuyuu is about to ask what, when Hakuren digs into his saddlebag and pulls out the little pouch of manju that their sister had given them, and he lets out a louder groan than he'd meant to, startling Kouen. "For the love of every god, Hakuren. Why didn't you just feed those to the dungeon monsters?! It would have killed them a lot faster!"

"Why didn't you think of that before?!" Hakuren snaps back. He takes one of them out of the pouch, and looks at the unassuming little bun forlornly. "I mean, it's a good idea..."

"You know you still don't have to eat them, right?" Hakuyuu reminds him. "Just throw the bag away, Ei will never have to know."

Hakuren looks scandalized. "Aniue, I love you, and I respect you, but if you think that I'm going to look our adorable, innocent baby sister in the face and _lie_ to her like that, you're out of your mind!" He bites into the bun like he has something to prove, and almost immediately gags, but manages to swallow it anyway, mumbling, "I'm a supportive big brother..."

"You're going to tell her that her cooking _doesn't_ make everyone sick; don't you think that's a worse lie?" Hakuyuu points out, but is ignored. Kouen, for his part, looks baffled at the whole exchange.

"Hakuyuu-sama...The princess' food can't be _that_ bad, can it?" he asks hesitantly. "I...was rather looking forward to trying it..."

"Trust me, Kouen, don't even take the risk. I'm glad that she's taking so well to Father's combat training, because _this_ is certainly not her strong suit." He glances back over at Hakuren, who is scarfing down manju like his life depends on it, even as his face turns steadily greener. "Hakuren, just stop now before you throw up all over your horse."

Again, Hakuren ignores him, and with some difficulty, swallows a bun whole so as not to taste it. He mumbles something mostly incoherent, though Hakuyuu can still pick out the words _can't stop me_ and _good big brother._

"Hakuren. There is literally no reason why you have to do this. None. Hakuren, I really don't want to have to watch you die, so will you just - No, you _can't_ eat three at once, that just makes it worse. Hakuren, please. _Hakuren."_

~0~

When they return home, he knows he must not let on. For the sake of everyone's morale (for Kouen's, especially), Hakuyuu must keep on his smile and keep up the jovial mood when they return home. It's not difficult, exactly, because this _was_ a victory hard-won and more than worth a small celebration. He allows Kouen to walk in front of him and Hakuren when going to announce the results of the mission to Hakutoku, and offers every glowing praise of his cousin that he can think of. He grins, genuinely, when a hesitantly smiling Kouen is led off by his father and uncle for a round of congratulatory drinks, with Koumei (who is now wide awake and can't seem to stop looking proudly up at his big brother) trailing along behind.

As for himself and Hakuren, they would have joined, had they not been waylaid by the gardens and subsequently occupied for much longer.

"It was _so cool!"_ Hakuren gushes for about the twentieth time, gesturing dramatically with his arms, while Hakuei and Hakuryuu sit and listen with rapt attention at his feet. "After _that,_ we got to the room with all these monsters - I've _never_ seen things like these before, they were like really big iguanas, but all red and with no eyes and these _huge_ heads and teeth! Oh, and these big wings like bats! And we had to fight them _all_ , like, a huge _flock_ of them!"

"Mm, I'm glad the elocution lessons weren't wasted on you, sweetheart," Gyokuen says mildly.

"Thanks, Ma," Hakuren deadpans. "It's so good to know you're proud of me."

"Oh, I certainly am," Gyokuen assures him with a smile. "Don't start doubting _that._ Go on, keep telling us all about it."

"Okay! ...Where was I again?"

While Hakuren jumps back into his story, Gyokuen turns to sit next to Hakuyuu, who has been resting on one of the garden's stone benches. "And _you,"_ she says softly, taking one of his hands in both of her own. "You and your brother have grown into fine warriors; conquering a dungeon is more than enough proof of that. I'm very proud of you, and that I couldn't be happier to have you as my sons. I want you to know that."

Warmth washes over Hakuyuu's body, and he grips his mother's hand tightly. "I know, Mother. Thank you."

"There is one thing I don't quite understand, though..."

But before she can get the words out, Hakuei pipes up, "The Djinn didn't want to go with you, nii-sama? Why not?"

"Yes, that," Gyokuen finishes. "Thank you, precious."

"Hmph. Listen, Hakuei," Hakuren begins, drawing himself up to his full height and crossing his arms over his chest to look more important. "If you ever get yourself involved in this dungeon-capturing nonsense, just remember: Djinn are real picky bastards!"

"Hakuren! Language!" Gyokuen says sharply, her head snapping up.

"Sorry, Ma, sorry...But it's true," he insists, turning back to his younger siblings. "Even if you get through their dungeon, you still might not get the prize. First, the Djinn has to decide if it likes you enough to go with you, or if you're worthy of becoming their king. Now don't get me wrong, Kouen is an amazing person and with this Metal Vessel he will tear through our enemies in a sea of endless flames, but that _stuck-up furball_ turned his oversized nose up at aniue and I because he thought we didn't _smell right."_

Hakuei blinks. "...What."

"Yeah! Yeah! You heard me!"

Their sister's face scrunches up as she processes this information. "Are you... _sure_ that's what it was?"

"The stupid fox _said_ so, didn't he?! Right to my face!" Hakuren pauses, takes a deep breath, and musters up a smile. "Ah, well. I guess we could always try again sometime, right?"

"Right!" Hakuei says, perking up again, but Hakuryuu still looks downtrodden.

"Aniue...He didn't like either of you?" he asks plaintively, eyes wide and confused. "But why wouldn't he like you?"

Hakuren shrugs. "Fu - I mean, uh, heck if I know. But don't worry about it, Ryuu!" he says, a little too brightly. "I guess we wouldn't have been good matches for this one, but we'll have better luck next time!"

"Yeah, you're right!" Hakuryuu agrees.

"Of course I am! Hey, you know the Djinn come in all forms, right? What kind of Djinn do you guys think I'd work best with?"

"Someone big and strong!" Hakuei says, at the same time that Hakuryuu shouts, "A dog! A fluffy one!"

Hakuren blinks as he pieces the answers together. "So...You two think I ought to find a big fluffy magic dog to live in my sword and go to war with me?"

"Yes!" Hakuei and Hakuryuu laugh.

" _Well._ I don't know where I'd find one to those _exact_ specifications, but you've just given me a great idea. I feel like I need a bit of a pick-me-up after being soundly rejected, so how's about the three of us go visit the new puppies in the kennel, huh?"

Both children shout assent, and happily let their big brother lead them off, Hakuren giving Hakuyuu and Gyokuen a thumbs-up over his shoulder as they go.

Gyokuen smiles, looking fondly after them. "So sweet...You don't want to go with them, darling?"

"No, actually..." Hakuyuu turns to look at his mother. "I wanted to talk with you more. What happened in the dungeon, there actually was something that bothered me, that's still bothering me."

"Oh? What is it?"

"The Djinn, Agares, he was some kind of fox-lion creature. He could sense rukh, like Judal-kun does, and he did have an extremely sharp sense of smell. And he said that he would have nothing to do with Hakuren and I, because our rukh and our scents and, well, us in general...We reminded him of a woman from where they came from, who killed their king and countless others. The traitor, he called her. He talked of another world that she had destroyed, but I didn't understand it. Do you, by any chance?"

To his surprise, the smile seems to freeze on his mother's face for a moment, and a strange look passes over her face. Hakuyuu is startled: he hadn't expected her to...recognize what he's talking about?

But her calm expression returns so quickly that he's certain he must have imagined it. "Why, no, Hakuyuu, I don't. It makes even less sense to me than it does to you, I think."

Hakuyuu stares for a second more before managing, "R-Really?"

"No; it does sound very odd, though. If it will be of any help to you...Would you tell me more about what happened? I want to hear _everything."_

 **~0~**


	3. Chapter 3

" _The Universe doesn't like secrets. It conspires to reveal the truth, to lead you to it."_

\- Lisa Unger, _Beautiful Lies_

~0~

The months and months go by, after that. And still the Djinn's words do not leave his head.

Hakuyuu wishes he was able to focus more on what they _mean._ However, the life of a crown prince whose nation is in the final stretches of its greatest war yet cannot exactly spare the time for such luxuries. Lately, his glimpses of the palace have grown slimmer and slimmer, and his goodbyes to his homebound family are more and more frequent.

He supposes that they do become easier each time, though, for all involved. Hakuei no longer cries when her father and big brothers leave, as she had done every time as a toddler. He can still see the way her smile doesn't quite reach her eyes; she has always understood and feared the very real possibility that one or all of them would not come back from war. In the past few years, however, he can tell that she's been trying to act stronger and calmer, to set an example for Hakuryuu the way he and Hakuren have done for her. As far as he can tell, it's working, but maybe a bit too well.

While Hakuryuu doesn't exactly _like_ to be without his father or brothers, he smiles and waves far too brightly when they leave, and as Hakuyuu has heard, he is in the habit of telling anyone who will listen long enough all about how cool and powerful and smart (and such) they all are, and what amazing things they go off to do all the time. He worries that perhaps their brother is too sheltered, that he doesn't understand the realities of war the way the rest of them do. He supposes it doesn't much matter, anyway. Hakuryuu is still young, and his cheerful innocence is heartening to see. He has the whole rest of his life ahead of him, he'll learn in time what the world is really like.

And his mother is the same as ever, eternally calm and serene. Either she is more confident in them than anyone else in the palace, his father likes to say, or she hides her fear better than any of them do. She kisses her husband's lips and her sons' foreheads - "For luck," she says - when they leave, and hugs them tight when they return. Always, she insists that he sit beside her and tell her everything about their campaign, and he enjoys the brief respites that those moments provide. Sometimes, Hakuyuu thinks that seeing the pride in her eyes as he tells her of his time is even more rewarding than seeing their country's flag flying above new territory.

"You were well-named," she'll tell him every so often, cupping his cheek in her hand. "My little hero."

Even better than this, though, are when they have the free time to spar a few rounds together. He no longer needs her as his trainer, that ended a few years ago. But still, there's nothing better to make sure that his skills as a swordsman are still well-honed. Alone in the training court, in the quiet and safety...He rarely feels more at peace. His mother, too, surprisingly seems most at ease with a sword in her hands. They talk during this, as well, and it's here with her that he never feels awkward about sharing his feelings, all his joys, hopes, and fears.

"It was strange," he tells her now, over the clang of metal as their blades connect again and again. "When we reached the first city, there was an atmosphere around it that I had never felt before."

"Oh? What was it like?"

"Actually...No, it _did_ feel familiar. But I couldn't say how. We had heard reports before about how this city's defenses were strong and its people fiercely united, but when we arrived, the place was in chaos. It was so easy for us to come in and take it, there wasn't even a battle. Not that I'm complaining, though," he adds quickly. "We try to negotiate, you know we do."

"Yes, dear, I know," she assures him, parrying two blows without missing a beat. "Though your father grows less and less patient with such things, the more they continue to fail."

"That's why I was glad. We took that place without spilling a single drop of blood. We only stayed for a couple weeks to get everything settled before moving on, but I think we left the city much less violent than we reached it. Still, I couldn't get rid of that feeling that something wasn't right."

She raises an eyebrow. "That _is_ strange. Do you have any idea why?"

"No...But it was the same when we went to the next city. It was like the people were infected with something, the rage and infighting among them was so awful. The leadership was practically sighing in relief when we arrived, and all but begged us to take the reins and get the place under control."

"Isn't that a good thing, darling?" she points out, smiling as if she wants to laugh. "The quicker and easier you can get these things done, the better."

"I know. But something just didn't feel right about any of it. And," he continues, remembering something. "When we were about ready to move on, I saw a few of the royal priests not far outside the city limits. I asked them what they were doing, and they said they'd been instructed to scout the next territories. You're with them a lot, do you know anything about that?"

"Hm...Now that you mention it, I _do_ remember Ithnan saying something about that. About how it might be a good idea to start aiding the army with a little of our magic. I didn't quite follow as well as I should, but what do you think?"

He pauses, and goes through two slashes and one thrust, all unsuccessful, before he speaks again. "I...suppose I don't see why not."

"Good, I was hoping you'd approve; your father is still on the fence about it. It's all very experimental right now, I'm sure, but I don't see how it couldn't be worth a try."

"But do you know exactly what they do?" Hakuyuu asks, brows furrowing. "Are you sure there isn't any danger in it?"

At that, she does laugh. "Believe me, darling boy, you have nothing to fear. We're only here to help you, don't forget that."

He smiles. "I won't. I know you - "

But before he can even finish the sentence, his mother lunges at him and with one quick slice of her sword, knocks his own weapon out of his hands and throws him completely off balance. He falls hard to his knees, and before he can get up again, the point of the sword is at his neck, the point barely a millimeter away from pricking his throat. He looks up the blade at his mother's teasing smile. "And don't forget to stay on your guard anyway."

Something like a laugh escapes him. "I'm never going to beat you, am I?"

"Never in your life," she agrees, bringing the sword to her side and offering her other hand to him. "Another round, though?"

He reaches up, takes her hand, and allows her to pull him to his feet. "Of course."

~0~

But still, he can't shake off these worries any more than he can forget what Agares told him. In fact, he's starting to think that it's making him more suspicious.

 _You share the rukh and blood of the traitor._

More and more, he begins to wonder whether there _isn't_ something treacherous in their midst.

All in all, he thinks it's happening too fast, this realizing things.

The feeling of unease that he had felt back in Gou, that had chilled his skin and made his stomach knot, doesn't leave when he comes home. In fact, here he thinks it's growing stronger, more concentrated. And the longer he looks, the more horribly certain he is that he knows the source, has known it all along.

He sees the priests growing more numerous, moving silently through the palace like packs of wolves, speaking in unison or not at all. He asks, time and time again, what their magic entails and what they mean to do with it. And time and time again, he gets only riddles and vague dismissals in answer.

He spends more and more time digging through the library with Hakuren, bouncing thoughts off of each other while they read and reread old books and reports and records from other nations. Hakuren points out the similarities in the initial fall of a small ocean country (he feels as if he should remember the name, but it escapes him) to what they've seen in the last territories they've conquered and lately in their own palace. In the meantime, he pores over pages upon pages of Torran, making note of the words that appear over and over again (the name _Solomon,_ of the man he's almost certain was the Great King that Agares claimed to serve, the most frequent among them) and trying to piece together the story of what had happened from them.

He sees less and less of his mother. More often than he is comfortable with, he spots her in the center of a group of priests, speaking about things he neither knows nor understands, and looking far more in command of their ranks than Ithnan ever does. Though she remains kind and sweet as ever, her smiles seem more vacant, her words emptier, and an odd shadow passes over her eyes when Hakuyuu tries to speak to her about any of this. He doesn't like watching her sink further and further into their world; he can see nothing good coming from it.

His father seems to agree. They would never harm each other, he knows, would never even shout. But he can hear their hissing, bitter arguments behind closed doors, can see how they suddenly don't speak, smile, or touch each other anymore. Even Hakuei and Hakuryuu notice. They come up to him asking worriedly what's wrong, and Hakuyuu never has an answer for them. All his father will say is, "I don't want them around her anymore; in fact, I'm not certain I want them around _here._ I wish she'd understand that I'm worried. I wish she'd _talk_ to me and give me a straight answer for once."

He knows that as crown prince, it is his responsibility to unearth and destroy any danger to his family and country. But even so, he wonders whether he's not blowing everything out of proportion and seeing danger where danger does not exist. So for now, he stays silent.

~0~

He had meant to put his worries and doubts about home aside until they returned. On campaign, he cannot allow anything to distract him from their goal, until every inch of this latest stretch of Gai territory belongs to Kou.

(Not long later, he will think back and realize, with a pang in his heart, that had he not been so single-mindedly focused on his task, he might have been able to pay more attention to the danger right next to them.

He might have been able to save his father.)

But for now, he allows himself the pride that is due him, as the warrior prince who rode at the head of the vanguard, that with his loyal soldiers finally snuffed out the last of the resistance in the remnants of the two defeated kingdoms. They do not expect anything truly difficult out of this next mission, by comparison; it's only an exploratory mission, to venture for the first time outside the borders of the extreme east. They camp for the first day on the borders of what was once Gai, and it seems that all are at ease, far more than he's seen on any other campaign.

He won't remember how it happened, exactly, only a blur. He knows only that he was walking with Hakuren in the bright sunlight, looking to go over the plans once more with their father. They spot Hakutoku emerging from his tent and coming towards them, the beginnings of a smile on his face, and Hakuyuu starts to lift an arm to wave -

Out of nowhere, something narrow and bright streaks through the air, passing about two inches over their heads, and a burning arrowhead buries itself in Hakutoku's forehead.

Hakuren recoils and screams in shock and horror, dropping the armload of rolled maps he had been carrying, and Hakuyuu very suddenly cannot breathe. The emperor, his eyes already lightless, stays standing for a second more, and then sways and collapses unceremoniously to the ground. All at once, the entire camp seems to freeze as the soldiers realize one by one what has happened.

His brother is the first one to fully react. Hakuren bolts to his father's side, tearing off his helmet to look more closely at the wound, all the while yelling at the top of his lungs for help. In another moment, something clicks in Hakuyuu's mind, and he spins around, running for the nearest horse and leaping on its back, riding as fast as he can in the direction the arrow had come from. His mind races, calculating the angle, the height, the distance, and urges the horse faster as he goes for the nearby forest. There is a small mountain at its center, that's the only place an assassin could have fired like that from...

When he reaches the base, he means to jump off and climb the narrow paths up the cliff face, but realizes that there's no need when he happens to look up as he yanks the horse to a sharp halt. Right above the peak is the familiar shape of a magic carpet, and just before it flashes away, too fast to see, let alone track, he recognizes the robes and mask of one of the royal priests. His eyes widen, and all he can do is sit atop the horse and stare, trying to come up with a reasonable explanation for this and coming up completely blank.

He doesn't know how long it's been before Hakuren comes bursting out of the bushes on a horse of his own.

"There you are! What are you thinking, running off like that?! At a time like this?! Our _father - !"_ He breaks off in a strangled sound of grief and anger, and brandishes a scorched, bloodstained arrow in his right hand. "I don't get it. I don't fucking get it. This arrow, it _looks_ Gaian, no doubt of it, but I don't know - " He stops, finally seeing the look on his brother's face. "Aniue? What is it? Did you see who did it?!"

Hakuyuu can't answer, can't even look at his brother.

 _Gods,_ he thinks numbly, the blood turning to ice water in his veins. _Good gods, I understand now._

 **~0~**


	4. Chapter 4

" _There'll be no rest, there'll be no love, there'll be no hero in the end who will rise above_

 _And when it ends, the good will crawl, the shining light will sink in darkness_

 _Victory for hate incarnate, misery and pain for all, when it falls."_

 _\- When It Falls,_ Jeff Williams

~0~

His father's body is destroyed in storm and fire, the burning pyre under the stone pavilion the only thing protected from the rain. He stands there, cold and numb right down to his bones, barely aware of how tightly he's gripping Hakuren's wrist.

He fixes his eyes on the place where the arrow had put a hole straight through his father's skull, and thinks on what he has seen since they returned home, all the signs that he should have noticed before. His uncle, smirking and snickering when he thinks no one can see. The priests, swarming even thicker, like vultures around carrion, showing no grief and no shame for it. And among them all, his mother, who has disappeared into their black-robed midst rather than offer any real comfort to her children.

Everything inside him rebels against the idea of accusing her. But it is what he must do.

The five of them file into a separate hall from the rest of the attendees after the funeral is finished. Hakuren keeps a protective arm around Hakuei, who is completely worn out from trying so hard not to cry in front of them all, and won't look up from the floor, while Gyokuen is still trying to soothe Hakuryuu, who had nearly sobbed himself sick during the service and is still crying softly in their mother's arms. Hakuyuu still doesn't know how he's going to do this, but he has learned his lesson: this must be done sooner rather than later, if he is to prevent more deaths.

He catches Hakuren's eye, and his brother nods. "Hey, Hakuryuu?" he says, casually as he can, reaching out with his other arm. "You want to come with me now?"

" _No,"_ Hakuryuu insists through his tears, clinging tighter to Gyokuen, who holds him closer in response.

"Shh, darling, it's all right. Mother won't leave you." She looks up at her elder sons, and Hakuyuu knows that she can see the accusation in their eyes. "But, is there a reason you wanted me to?"

Hakuren grits his teeth, while Hakuyuu says, in a low, flat voice, "Mother, we saw who fired that arrow. We think we know what really happened."

"Do you, now?" she responds, and the lightness of her voice turns Hakuyuu's insides cold. "Is it really something that bears discussion here, where the wrong ears could hear you? After this...I have no idea what could happen next."

"Mother," Hakuyuu says as firmly as he can. "We need to talk. We need to know, for certain."

"Are you quite sure of that?"

He forces himself to meet her challenging gaze. " _Yes."_

Hakuryuu is still too upset to fully notice the tension in the air, but it jerks Hakuei out of her exhausted daze somewhat. "What's going on?" she asks weakly. "Is...Are you all right?"

Hakuren sighs, forcing the anger from his face as he looks down at his sister. "Yeah, Ei, don't worry. Listen, this day's been rough on all of us, is there anything you need right now that might help?"

"W-Well," she mutters, looking back down at the floor. "Some water, maybe...My throat really hurts."

"Okay. Come on, then, I'll get you some." With that, Hakuren leads the girl away, over his shoulder shooting Hakuyuu a knowing glance and their mother a sharp glare. Hakuyuu and Gyokuen watch as the two disappear around a corner.

"Coming to that..." She turns to Hakuryuu, whose face is still buried in her shoulder, and her voice softens. "Is there anything _you_ need now, darling? Are you hungry? Tired?"

Hakuryuu sniffles a little. "N-No...I don't know...I-I just want to stay with you," he says in his tiny, tearful voice, leaning forward to wrap his arms around his mother's neck.

"All right, then, that's what we'll do," Gyokuen coos, running her hand up and down his back. "Let's get you somewhere nice and quiet, and we can both just rest today, does that sound good?"

Hakuryuu just whimpers in response as she turns to leave. Before she does, she looks back at Hakuyuu. "If you insist, then both of you come to my room at midnight. We'll talk then."

"Very well. But we're expecting answers," Hakuyuu warns.

She smiles sweetly, as if his anger amuses her. "Play your cards right and you might get the ones you want. We'll see, later."

As she walks away, Hakuryuu nervously speaks up again. "Mother, is aniue angry at us?"

"No, dear. Your brothers and I just need to figure out what we're all going to do next. It might be a little difficult for us, but it's okay, I promise."

Even after she's turned the opposite corner and left, Hakuyuu still glares at the space where she was, unconsciously flexing his fingers and wishing he could grab his sword and end all this right now. He jumps when he feels a hand on his shoulder, but all the tension in his body he didn't realize he'd been building up rushes away when he turns to see that it's just Kouen. His cousin's face is an almost-perfect mask of composure, but his eyes look just as exhausted as Hakuyuu feels.

"Hakuyuu-sama," Kouen mutters. "If I may ask, what _was_ that about? Is everything all right? Between you and Her Majesty, I mean."

Hakuyuu swallows, considering his answer. The urge to confess, to let everything he knows spill from his mouth, is overwhelming. Only the sight of two passing priests turning to look at him from behind Kouen's back, their stares burning into him even from behind the veils, stills his tongue. What would he even say, anyway, when he barely understands what is happening himself?

"I...The truth is, I don't know."

"You don't know?"

"Kouen, I..." A spot just above Hakuyuu's eye begins to throb as he racks his brain for the right words, but Kouen waits patiently. "It feels like everything's wrong in this place. I don't know who I can trust anymore."

"You can trust me, Hakuyuu-sama!" Kouen immediately reassures him, and Hakuyuu lets out something like a laugh at how quickly the response came.

"I know. I'm grateful for you, you know. For everything you've done for me and for the empire."

"Thank you, Hakuyuu-sama." Even after all these years, Kouen's cheeks still turn a little pink at the compliment. "I'm sure I'll be able to do a lot more after my next mission!"

That brings Hakuyuu up short. "Mission? What mission?"

"Oh...I thought you knew. I'm going off to clear another dungeon! Her Majesty said that the Magi just raised another one."

" _Mother_ said - ?"

"Yes! I was thinking I'd wait a little longer to try again, just to make sure that everything is all right here before I go, but she insisted that I not let this hold me back. I'm leaving tomorrow at dawn, with my retainers who wish to obtain Household Vessels. And Koumei," he adds, almost as an afterthought, "in case this Djinn wants options, too."

"I..." Hakuyuu feels frozen for a moment. Then all of a sudden, he knows what to do. He yanks the sword, sheath and all, from its place at his hip and offers it to Kouen, hilt first. "Take this with you."

Kouen couldn't have looked more surprised if Hakuyuu had hit him with the thing instead. "B-But...Hakuyuu-sama, that's _yours!_ Passed down to you from Emperor Hakutoku, and to him from King Tokuma, and - !"

"I know full well what it is and what it means. That's why I want you to have it, and turn it into your next Metal Vessel. If the Djinn won't have me, then I'll settle for it making a home in my most precious weapon. You'll be able to keep me with you wherever you go."

His eyes huge and his fingers trembling slightly, Kouen reaches out and takes the sword, as if accepting it from the hand of a god. "Hakuyuu-sama, _thank_ you..."

"You keep it, under one condition. If anything should ever happen to Hakuren and I, promise me you'll protect Hakuei and Hakuryuu. Children have been forced to assume the throne before, but they have never survived without help. And you need to watch our mother."

"Yes, of course, I'll watch over Her Majesty as well - "

" _No,_ Kouen," Hakuyuu says firmly. More than anyone else in the palace right now, his cousin _must_ understand this. " _Watch_ her. And never trust her."

"Wh-What?" Kouen looks more confused than Hakuyuu has ever seen him. "Why not?"

"Hopefully, you never have to find out." He's said enough now, maybe even too much. Just because he can't see the priests doesn't mean they're not still listening. He gives Kouen's shoulder a half-hearted pat. "It doesn't matter right now. Just focus on your mission, and we'll see what we can tell you when you get back."

"But...Hakuyuu-sama!" Kouen cries out as Hakuyuu turns and starts to walk away.

"Kouen." Hakuyuu stops for a moment, glancing over his shoulder to look his cousin in the eyes, willing him to remember this, if nothing else. "Focus only on what matters. That's an order, from your emperor. Do you understand me?"

Kouen is still looking at him like a lost puppy, but still, he nods and salutes the elder prince, as he's done all his life. "Yes, Hakuyuu-sama. I swear on this sword that I will."

"Good."

With that, Hakuyuu turns again and walks out of the hall to find Hakuren. They have already failed their father, he thinks bitterly. One way or another, they _have_ to work out how to get everyone through this alive.

~0~

As soon as he and Hakuren set foot in the empress' quarters of the palace that night, the first thing Hakuyuu notices is how unearthly quiet the place is. The only sounds he can hear are their own footsteps on the hard marble floor, and he glances around for any sign of someone else (a guard, a servant, anybody), but sees nothing in any of the lengthy corridors.

Even so, he can't shake the tingling sensation in his neck and shoulders that tells him his every move is being watched.

They stop in front of their mother's bedroom door. Hakuyuu takes hold of the brass doorknob, but something inside him freezes when he does. At this moment, he knows with absolute certainty that he does _not_ want to face what lies beyond this door. But he takes a deep, steadying breath, and forces himself to turn his wrist and yank it open, with perhaps more force than is necessary. The door slams against the wall, and they both stalk inside.

Gyokuen stands there waiting for them, leaning against the foot of her bed with a bemused look on her face. "Now, now, my dears, there's no need for such hostility," she chides. "You should be more like your sweet little brother. It took me hours to get him down to sleep just now, he's so _very_ attached to me."

"Leave Hakuryuu out of this," Hakuren snaps. "He and Hakuei both. It's us you want, right?"

"Ah, yes. You insist on making spectacles of yourselves instead of being good boys and listening to your mother. Well, _if_ you insist, what is it you wish me to explain?"

"Our father," Hakuyuu hisses. "That was no accident, was it? Nothing to do with Gai at all, it was you!"

"Well, _technically_ it was Ithnan. He's a surprisingly good shot. But if you're looking for the one who gave the order, then..." She gestures to herself, and a smile crawls onto her face. "Look no further."

At such shamelessness, Hakuyuu is so enraged that he cannot speak. Hakuren's anger won't let him stay quiet.

" _You!"_ he roars, and pushes past his brother to charge at Gyokuen, forgetting the sword at his hip and instead throwing his fist back to strike her.

The punch makes it to about an inch from her face, before bright light flashes and then the searing golden energy of a borg flares out from Gyokuen's body. There's a sickening crunch as it slams first into Hakuren's hand, and then the rest of his body, sending him flying back with a yell. He hits the ground and rolls, his back hitting the door and knocking it half closed, but in an instant he's back up on his feet and looking ready to charge again. Hakuyuu throws an arm over his brother's chest, giving him a warning glare. Hakuren grimaces, but stays still, holding his bleeding fingers with his other hand.

All the while, Gyokuen hasn't moved one bit, hasn't even changed her expression. "Did I not just say that there's no need for that? You're getting in over your head, sweetheart. Do try to calm down."

"You _bitch,"_ Hakuren snarls between clenched teeth, loathing dripping from every syllable. "You betrayed him, you killed him... _He loved you! I - !"_

"Yes?" Her tone is innocent, but her smile widens just a little. "You what?"

Hakuren chokes back the rest of his outburst, his eyes gleaming with tears. "You should be dead instead of him."

"Hm. That's a little dramatic, now, isn't it? Especially coming from a child who knows nothing of me or my cause. If I asked you what you think the priests and I are working towards, you wouldn't know exactly how to answer, would you? But I assure you, _everything_ I do comes from a place of purpose, of righteousness."

"Is that so?" Hakuyuu narrows his eyes. "Enlighten us, then."

"At their cores, your goal and mine are not so different. You and your father sought to unite the world under one banner. That's all well and good, I suppose; I've admired Kou's dedication to battle for centuries now. However, I seek much more than that."

Hakuren blinks, his lips falling open. "Wait, what do you mean, _centuries?"_

"What I need to do," Gyokuen goes on, as if Hakuren hadn't spoken, "is guide this world into its natural state, to free it once and for all from the chains of fate. After so long, we're almost there, but not quite yet. This country and its people, our family in particular, have helped me for all this time, and it's come time for me to take full control of them, that's all."

"Wha - What are you _talking about?"_ Hakuren shouts, raking his hand through his hair in frustration. "None of that makes any sense!"

Confusion and anger are building up in Hakuyuu's chest, too, but he decides that the best thing to do is try to parse this all out, piece by piece. "What exactly has Kou done to help you? And what do you mean, natural state?"

"Why, darling, you've been doing it this entire time," she laughs. "To reach our ultimate goal, we must spread chaos and darkness over every part of the world. Unleashing a great war of conquest as my beloved Hakutoku did, and as you two planned to continue, turned out to be _exactly_ what we needed to do that. Our plans have been moving faster and more smoothly than I had ever thought possible since it began. And once we have a hold over this entire world, we will finally have amassed enough dark rukh and magoi to reunite with our god - our Father - and with him return this world to the way it was always meant to be."

"And what way is that?" Hakuyuu growls, hoping she can't see that they're still struggling to understand her.

" _Well,_ I wouldn't want to spoil such a wonderful surprise. But I can promise that this is something I can and will achieve, one way or another." She leans back further, her smile turning sly. "Just as I did in Alma Torran."

Hakuyuu's eyes widen, and a quick glance to his right shows an identical look of shock on Hakuren's face. "You know about that place?!" he blurts out.

Hakuren stammers, "The, the Djinn was the only other one who said - "

"Oh, you'd have learned nothing from _them._ They're foolish creatures, clinging helplessly to the last remnants of their defeated king by lending their powers to those who remind them of him. They think that by trying to protect this world from destruction, it will somehow mean that they _didn't_ fail to protect the world before. Honestly, it's the most pathetic thing I've ever seen. I'm glad neither of you got stuck with one of them."

Every word turns the blood to ice water in Hakuyuu's veins, and sets off a flood of memories, some of which he'd been trying for almost twenty years to keep buried at the back of his head.

 _A wolf's smile, too-bright eyes. Blood, blood, so much_ blood - !

" _She hid her cruelty and bloodlust behind a bright smile and kind eyes."_

" _If that is your intention, nothing you do with this sword can be wrong. Forget doubt and fear, and focus on what_ you _want."_

 _Shining blades and death screams; gods, he has been so_ stupid _, how could he, hadn't she told him before -_

"N-No way..." All the color has drained from Hakuren's face, and he's gone completely still. "The woman Agares was talking about...I-It was _you?!"_

" _Very_ good, sweetheart," Gyokuen drawls, looking more self-satisfied than she has any right to be. "'Traitor,' you said that stupid animal called me? None of them ever understood; _they_ were the ones trying to undermine the true order of our world."

"But...But _how?"_ Hakuren sputters. "How could there be...A-And you, how could you - ?"

"I know, it's a lot to take in. But just remember that everything I'm telling you is the truth."

"Insane as it is, I suppose it matches up with what we've already heard and read," Hakuyuu admits. "There's still one thing I need to know for sure, though. You want to do the same thing to this world that you did to Alma Torran, don't you? So tell me this: _what did you do to that world?"_

She looks him calmly in the eyes, still meeting his glare with a smile. "You already know that, don't you? Arrogance must be punished, unjust kings cast down, and all humans freed from the curse of predetermined fate. And in order to do that, some must be sacrificed."

The confirmation of what he'd already feared makes Hakuyuu's heart skip a beat, and his body go cold. When he speaks, it's as if he's hearing himself from a great distance away. "You destroyed it...That entire world..."

Her smile starts to slip, just slightly. "Don't look at me like that. I had no other choice - "

"You killed everyone!" screeches Hakuren, his voice breaking, and his body jerks forward as if he wants to shove past Hakuyuu and try to get another punch in. "How many did you and your fucking cult murder, huh?! Lives, families, an entire _world..._ How much did you destroy?! Had no _choice?!_ The _hell you did!"_

"Quiet, boy," Gyokuen warns. "Don't ramble to me about things you could never comprehend. I want - "

"No, I don't _care_ what you want!" Hakuren roars, pushing Hakuyuu's arm aside and taking a step forward, an inferno of fury in his eyes. "I don't care what you're trying to do, and I don't care about anything you have to say! You...You're a monster. And I want nothing more to do with you!" He turns to Hakuyuu and adds, "You do whatever you need to here. _You_ I'll wait for."

Hakuren turns on his heel and storms out of the room. As he passes the door, his hand twitches as if wanting to slam it, but he leaves it open and disappears down the hall. The smile returns to Gyokuen's face, but it seems to Hakuyuu that the light in her eyes is somewhat dimmer. "Hm. Monster," she says flatly, crossing her arms. "Is that what he thinks of his own mother? He really doesn't get it, does he?"

"Nor do I," Hakuyuu growls, turns and starts to follow his brother.

"Hakuyuu, stay," she orders. "You, at least, should be able to listen - "

"No. I think we're done here."

" _Hakuyuu!"_

He freezes in his tracks at the sharp shout. His mother has never spoken like that before, never...

"Don't you dare leave now. Turn around. Look at me."

He follows the commands automatically, and is surprised at what he sees. His mother's smile has turned to a hard glare. "Are you truly telling me that you cannot see things my way? Even with the promise of all the knowledge I could give you, all the power we could share, you would still reject me?"

Hakuyuu pauses, considering his answer. These are dangerous, uncharted waters and he doesn't exactly want to find out the consequences for the wrong words. But hesitation isn't what Gyokuen is looking for, either.

"You _can't_ understand, can you? That white rukh, it's blinded you. You and your father and your siblings...everyone." She grips her upper arms so tightly that her knuckles turn white, and he can tell that she's struggling to speak clearly instead of yell. "Solomon's will has enslaved all of you, and pulled you so far out of my reach..."

Hakuyuu's eyes widen. "King Solomon...That's right, you knew him, didn't you?"

She laughs, coldly and mirthlessly. "I _killed_ him. That foolish boy, with shining eyes and selfish dreams...And yet, his essence still chokes this world, forcing every living thing to bend to his will. Even _dead,_ he's taken everything from me, even my own children!"

"You think that this isn't your fault?" Hakuyuu snaps, his anger quickly resurfacing. "Whoever Solomon was and whatever he did, it's not because of him that we came here tonight. It's because of _you!_ The wrong that _you_ have done to our family, the evil that _you_ commit with no remorse, the ruin that _you_ want to bring to the world that I swore to protect! You think that you can blame everything on a man you betrayed and murdered, and call yourself righteous?"

"My path _is_ the only righteous one. I follow my Father's voice, I always have, I can never be led astray. But you...You would let yourself be moved by the destiny Solomon forces on you for the rest of your life, wouldn't you? You'd become his puppet, and do it happily."

"I don't see any difference from what _you_ want to do with me."

"No! Why can't you just _understand?!"_ she bursts out, eyes flaring, making Hakuyuu jump.

"Mother - !"

"You are _my_ son. _My son,"_ she hisses. The hatred in her eyes, wild and animalistic, sends terror surging through Hakuyuu's blood, and he fights not to show it on his face. "You are _mine,_ every last part of you. So why...Why can I see only Solomon in you, and nothing of myself?!"

"That, too, is your fault," Hakuyuu says, as levelly as he can. "Agares saw enough of you in me to cast me out of his sight. You see of this world only what you want to see, and no more than that. Your own desires, the voice of your god...You're the one who is blinded to reality."

That cold laugh again, though this time it sounds more like she wants to cry. "You even sound like him. You look like him, you've always looked _exactly like him_." Her smile turns twisted and vicious. "If only you didn't...Then maybe it wouldn't _turn my stomach_ just to look at you."

The venomous words hit like a dagger thrown straight to his heart, and Hakuyuu can't help the small noise of surprise and hurt that escapes him. It takes him a moment to bring back his composure, to breathe deeply and speak clearly. "If all this is true...Then we've _never_ been on the same side, after all. This only cements it."

"That's only true if you want it to be. Do you _want_ me to be your enemy?"

He resists the urge to shiver at the implicit threat. "No. I'd rather none of this ever happened. That what I used to think you were..." He swallows hard against the sudden thickness in his throat, and refuses to let himself remember loving words and a safe embrace. "Was real, and that I could still trust you. That our family could still be together."

"Who says that we can't?" She's trying to return her face and voice to normal, he can tell, but there's still that underlying desperation that destroys any semblance of calmness and control. She reaches out to him, offers her hand, and he's ashamed to feel the ghost of his childhood impulse, telling him to run to her and forget everything. "Come, now. We're both trying to gain control of this world, aren't we? Stay with me and there's nothing I couldn't give you, nothing left in the dark. Come. Show me that you're still my child."

"...I won't," Hakuyuu says, forcing himself to keep looking into her eyes. "I can't. I will _never_ side with someone who only wants to bring suffering into the world."

Her eyes narrow. "You spread suffering all over this miserable world already. You and your precious empire. If you think you're any different from me - "

"I _am,"_ he declares, standing straighter. "My goal has always been to bring peace to and protect this world! I will not allow anyone to get in the way of that. Not even you, Mother."

"Is that so? Then tell me, my little hero, how do you intend to do that? There is no power in this world greater than my own; I can destroy anything or anyone I want. What do you think you can do to me?"

He bristles at the disdain in her voice, and wants nothing more than to be able to rise to that challenge. But he knows that he must handle this situation like he would any battle: logically. So he lets the defiance slip from his face, lets his tired body sag, as if suddenly realizing defeat. When he and Hakuren regroup, they'll make a plan and take action as quickly as possible. For now, though...

"I don't know. I...I don't think that there's anything I or anyone else can do."

"Exactly. If you can't beat me, then there's no reason you shouldn't join me."

He can't keep back a small snort of derision. "Mother, you've already shown your hand. There's nothing you can do to tempt me now. I'm finished here."

Her lip curls in disgust. "You're making a mistake, boy. Don't say I didn't warn you."

"Maybe. But even so, I could never make a different choice. I can't ignore this and become complacent. Because..." It feels like the greatest effort of his life to keep his expression calm and his voice even as he speaks. "Someone I once loved and respected very much told me...Whatever happens, don't look away."

She lets out a short, sharp bark of a laugh. "That person never existed. You know that now as well as I do."

"I suppose so," he says bitterly, turning to walk out of the room. "And I suppose there's one silver lining to all this: at least now I'm getting to know my real mother."

"You're not."

Once more, Hakuyuu freezes. "What was that?"

"Oh, nothing," she dismisses him, but she sounds too amused for that to be true. He turns around slowly, once more fixing her with a glare.

"No. What did you just say?"

"Nothing, darling boy." Her eyes glitter mockingly and her smile makes his insides twist as she considers him, considers what to say - how to lie? How much of the truth to tell him? He can't tell. "It's just, so many names, so many lives, so many years since Solomon's time. Am I truly myself any more? I don't know. And I doubt you care enough to concern yourself with that."

She's only half right: he couldn't care less about her troubles, but that answer raises so many more questions about just what in the world - in _both_ worlds - has been going on. "How long has it been since Solomon's time? If you were really a part of it, then…Mother, how have you - I mean, what are you - ?"

"Ah, ah, ah," she cuts him off, wagging her finger reprovingly with each syllable. "The deal still stands. My knowledge for your loyalty - it isn't an unfair price."

He grits his teeth in frustration, biting back the hundreds of questions he's burning to ask. But enticing as they are, he feels no pull to change his mind in order to get at the full truth. Even if it means he never knows everything, he has already made his decision, and he cannot turn back. "That's not how I see it."

"Then we really do have nothing more to say to each other," Gyokuen says, with no emotion in her voice at all.

"No. We don't. Goodbye, Mother."

With that, Hakuyuu leaves, closing the door behind him without looking back to see his mother's face. He's about to keep on going, when he hears a clatter and then a familiar voice inside the room, and moves back, sidling against the door and putting his ear to the wood to listen.

"Well. That went better than expected."

His mother sighs heavily. "Ithnan, get out of my window."

"Gladly." The sound of heavy footsteps.

"I meant, _out of my room."_

"Then you should have been more specific. Anyway. You heard your spawn, they intend to make nuisances of themselves now. What do you want to do about it?"

"For now..." She falls silent, considering, and Hakuyuu doesn't so much as breathe until she speaks again. "Nothing."

"What?"

"Like you said, you heard Hakuyuu. They have no plan, no power, no proof of anything they've accused me of. There's only two of them against all of us, and Hakuei and Hakuryuu are still around if we need to use a little leverage to get them to behave. I see no true threat here."

"No threat? No _power?_ Are you forgetting that Prince Hakuyuu is soon to be crowned emperor?"

"I certainly am not. I'll deal with that as it comes."

"Arba, you can't be serious."

"Don't argue with me. My word is final."

"But, _Arba - "_ Ithnan breaks off. Hakuyuu's mind is already racing over the strange name he'd called her by, and he isn't sure what she's doing that he can't see, but when her friend speaks again, his tone is far more agreeable. "Oh. Oh, I see. Then by all means, don't let me stop you. Before I go, is there anything you need?"

"Ugh...Headache medicine, mostly. I really shouldn't have let him get me so worked up."

"Easily done. Anything else?"

"New children," she sighs again. "I've just about had it with this set."

"Well, you'll have to wait a few more years for that one. I'll see you later, then."

"Thank you, Ithnan. Good night."

"Good night..."

There's that same noise at the window again, and Hakuyuu decides he's heard enough. As slowly as possible, so his boots make no sound on the floor for his mother to detect, he slips away. It should do them some good, he thinks, if their mother is really going to underestimate them like this. At the very least, it will buy them some time. And his impending coronation could very well give them an advantage.

He meets Hakuren at the end of the next hall, and as they start to make their way back through the marble corridors, he briefs him on everything that had occurred while he was gone in low whispers. The place is still as silent as the grave, until they near the entrance and the sound of tiny footsteps and soft crying reaches their ears. They exchanged confused glances, and hurry around the next corner to find the source of the noise.

"Hakuryuu?! What are you doing here?" Hakuren blurts out.

The second Hakuryuu recognizes the voice, he's already darted over to them, grabbing Hakuren's leg with both arms and burying his tearful face in his knee. "A-Aniue..."

"Hey, easy, Ryuu, it's okay," Hakuren murmurs, picking their little brother up and letting him cling to his shirt. "What's the matter? Bad dream or something?"

Hakuryuu nods against his shoulder. "Y-Yeah...I, I woke up and got scared s-so I tried to find Mother, b-but I can't. Sh-She left and she's not here. Where is she?"

Hakuren's expression goes flat and hard, and he holds Hakuryuu tighter to him. Hakuyuu can't blame him: the last place he wants either of their siblings to be is in their mother's arms, especially after what he'd just heard her tell Ithnan. He reaches over to rub Hakuryuu's back, saying as soothingly as he can, "Don't be scared. Mother's asleep right now, but we're right here. We're not going anywhere. How about we take you back to your room, and we'll stay with you until you can get back to sleep, how's that sound?"

"Okay," Hakuryuu mumbles, and buries his face into Hakuren's shoulder as his brother carries him out of their mother's quarters and towards the wing of the palace reserved for the main branch's children, with the muffled sounds of the rain and thunder outside. He doesn't speak again until they're almost there, and even then, it's so quiet that Hakuyuu almost misses it. "Aniue? Mother said she was going to talk with you at night, to make sure everything was okay. Did you do that?"

"Yeah. Yeah, we did that," Hakuren says, with a look of irritation that Hakuryuu doesn't catch.

"Is everything okay, then?"

"It's...It's going to be very difficult, now that Father is gone. I'm not sure what's going to happen from here." He pauses, his mind forcing him to consider the very real possibility that they can't. "Hakuryuu...If something ever happens to the two of us, you should..."

Hakuryuu looks up at him, surprised and curious, while over his head, Hakuren is giving him a look that clearly screams, _What the hell, don't tell him that!_ He lets out a small, exasperated huff; Hakuren is right.

"No, I don't want you to bear this weight alone. If only I could do something about this..."

But before he has to say anything more, an especially loud boom of thunder followed immediately by a cry of fright from right nearby makes all of them jump. All three brothers look over, and realize that they're next to Hakuei's room. "Oh, boy," Hakuren murmurs. "Looks like you're not the only one having trouble sleeping tonight, Ryuu?"

Hakuryuu blinks, listening to the series of whimpers coming from behind his sister's door. "Is she all right?"

"She'll be fine," Hakuyuu assures him, already moving. "Hakuren, you stay with Ryuu, I'll get her."

"Gotcha. Come on, kiddo, I'll sit with you until you fall asleep. In fact, I think I might just sleep in there with you, I'm _really_ tired..."

Hakuyuu takes a moment to watch the two of them round the corner, and then reaches for his sister's doorknob. He opens the door and pokes his head inside, and the sight of his little sister, face flushed and hair stuck to her face with sweat, startling and looking up at him with red-rimmed, terrified eyes hits him like a punch in the heart.

"Hakuei? Are you all right?" he asks softly.

"Oh," she murmurs thickly, and looks down at the mess of blankets around her. "Y-Yeah, onii-sama, I'm fine."

 _No, you're not._ "May I come in for a minute?"

She nods, and he goes over to sit next to her on the bed. He wraps his arm around her thin shoulders, and he's barely even touched her before she's leaning into his side, pressing her face against his chest. He can feel her still trembling under his arm, and he hugs her close. He may not know how to solve their family's biggest problem, but for now, he can do his best to make his siblings feel safe.

He _will_ keep them safe, no matter what he has to do to ensure that.

~0~

"So that's how it is?" Hakuren growls, leaning back against the pillar of the courtyard. Hakuyuu has just finished giving him the full account of what happened last night, and somehow he looks even angrier now than he did then. "What are we going to do?"

"That's what we have to figure out," Hakuyuu says. "It's not much, and we still can't delay, but I think we have some time to do that. Mother doesn't consider us a threat at the moment. We need to have something concrete planned, by my coronation at the soonest, and by the time Kouen gets back at the very, very latest."

"Fine by me." Hakuren clenches a fist, and smacks it into his other palm. "I just wish I could have landed _one_ hit on her face. Maybe then I'd be a little calmer."

"No sense dwelling on it now." Hakuyuu looks over at the opposite end of the courtyard, at the row of masked priests filing across it, and grimaces. In just this one morning, he's seen more of them swarming around the palace than he ever has before. For the first time, he wonders exactly how many there are. "But I feel that we should finish this discussion somewhere in private. The library, perhaps?"

"Also fine by me. Let's go."

But no sooner have they turned the first corner than they see their younger siblings again, and both children perk up when they realize their brothers are here.

"Onii-sama, nii-sama!" Hakuei calls when she sees them, running up to them with Hakuryuu right on her heels. "We were looking for you! Are you busy?"

Hakuyuu coughs and rubs the back of his neck, and Hakuren answers, "Little bit, yeah."

"Oh...Aneue had a question, though," Hakuryuu says, glancing down. "She won't tell me about it, only you."

"Is that so?" Hakuyuu raises his eyebrows. "We've only got a minute, but we'll do our best."

"I-I've been trying to think about...What everyone's saying about Father, a-and..."

Hakuren took a deep breath, trying to push his anger down to sound gentle for his sister, but only half succeeding. "What about it?"

She flinches, glances down, too nervous to meet their eyes, and Hakuryuu clings tighter to her dress. Hakuyuu has to strain to hear what she's saying. "W-Well...Before, people said that he was a hero, and he was doing such an incredible thing by conquering the other nations. I thought he was helping them, making everything better. But...But now everyone's telling me that they murdered him _because_ he did all of that, and I...I just - !" Hakuei's voice breaks, and she looks up at them with tears in her eyes. "I-I don't understand. What did Father do wrong?"

Something clenches in Hakuyuu's stomach, and the urge to say something, _anything,_ to soothe his little siblings hits him fiercely. He did it just last night, he can do it again now. He opens his mouth, but nothing can come out before Hakuren pushes past him and drops to his knees, throwing his arms around both children's shoulders and pulling them into a tight hug.

"Don't worry about that, Ei. Aniue and I will explain everything to you both sometime soon, I promise. But for right now, the four of us just need to focus on taking care of ourselves, all right?"

"As for what they're saying about Father," Hakuyuu adds, putting a hand on his brother's shoulder. "Though it can be useful to know how our enemies' minds work, there's no need for you to overthink it right now. Just remember what you know is true: our father was a good man, who loved us all and always did what he believed to be right. Don't let anyone convince you that he deserved what happened to him."

Hakuryuu pokes his head up over his brother's arm indignantly. "No way!" he exclaims, and Hakuei nods assent beside him.

"Good," Hakuren says, letting them go and standing back up. "Now, listen, I said we'll talk more, but that's really going to have to wait. Aniue and I have big plans for what's happening next that we need to get to."

"Okay, we can go, then," Hakuei says, and takes Hakuryuu's hand. "Thank you both."

"No problem, we'll see you later!"

"And stay together!" Hakuyuu calls after the two as they go. "I want you two keeping an eye on each other!"

Both of them call back over their shoulders in more or less agreement, and he and Hakuren continue on their way. As soon as he's sure that their siblings are out of earshot, Hakuren grumbles, "Those were bullshit explanations, aniue."

"I know, Hakuren."

"She's going to grow up with a complex because of this. Ryuu, too."

"I _know_ , Hakuren. There wasn't much else we could say that they would understand and that Mother wouldn't object to them hearing."

Hakuren grits his teeth. "Mother...We're going to have to kill her, you know. Whether we can prove anything or not, whether we can get away with it or not, there's going to be massive damage when we do. How are we going to pull it off?"

"I don't know yet," Hakuyuu says once more, his eyes narrowing. His hand goes to the sword at his hip; it's not as comforting a presence as _his_ sword, that he had passed on to Kouen, but it will do for now. "But we need to move fast, or we'll be too late."

 **~0~**


	5. Chapter 5

" _I told you I would destroy you."_

\- Amon, Legend of Korra

~0~

Destiny, it seems, has other plans for them.

The fire is suffocating, all-consuming, and it had come out of nowhere. A crash, a blast, a spark...Now huge walls waves of flame, heavy black clouds of smoke, are all that Hakuyuu can see as he tries to lead his younger brothers to safety somehow.

No part of him expected it to get any worse. But then the shadowy forms of the priests begin to appear around them, as if from the fire itself, and his stomach drops when he realizes exactly what's happening. He should have known, he should have _known_ his mother was lying.

The all-too-familiar noises of metal striking metal, mingling sickeningly with the priests' howling laughter and Hakuryuu's terrified screams, fill his ears as they lunge at the three princes again and again. While Hakuren focuses on shielding their little brother, Hakuyuu is free to maneuver as he wishes. And this, finally, is his breaking point; the rage and bloodlust that has been boiling in his heart all this time floods to the surface, surging through his blood. He allows it to move him to its will, charges and hacks and slashes the cultists apart through the fire and smoke and the red haze of his vision, and barely feels it when they manage to cut into him. He pours every last bit of his strength into his onslaught, cleaving off limbs and slicing bodies in half with each attack. For every one, the image of Gyokuen's self-satisfied smile is at the back of his mind, and he could swear he can hear her laughter, even now.

He will kill her, he promises himself, bringing his sword down through the skull of another priest, red starting to edge his vision when the body bursts into yet another useless doll. He will tear her apart, he will take revenge for his family, when he gets out of this - !

"I still cannot die," he hears himself growl out loud, sweat and blood running in rivulets down his face and neck. "I cannot let them have their way..."

At his feet, Hakuryuu murmurs incoherently, and then manages to speak through his tears. "Aniue," he whimpers. "Are...Are aneue and Mother all right? They couldn't have...Shouldn't we go help them?"

Hakuyuu shares a wary glance with Hakuren. He would love nothing more than to throw his mother into the flames and be done with this, but he knows that she'll be staying far out of their reach, watching her handiwork from a safe distance. Their sister, however...

"Do you remember where Hakuei was last?" he asks Hakuren. "She wasn't anywhere around here, was she?"

"I don't know, I haven't seen her since this morning!" Hakuren snaps back, frustration in his voice and pure fear in his eyes.

"All right...We'll keep looking for a way out," Hakuyuu decides, ignoring the sinking feeling in his gut at the probability that if they do find one, there will be yet another ambush there waiting for them. "If she's around here, with any luck we'll find her on the way and bring her with us."

Hakuren grits his teeth. "Fine, if that's the best we can do."

"Unfortunately, it is." Hakuyuu looks up, scans the area, and spots a narrow strip of the room that isn't completely consumed by fire. "Let's go. Hakuryuu, stay close to us!"

So they run, throats and lungs burning as they breathe in smoke and ash, flames licking at their skin, their open wounds, and dodging falling pieces of fiery wood as their home collapses all around them. Bodies, charred black already, litter the halls and rooms they bolt through: servants, guards, countless innocent bystanders who died trying to escape the fire, or maybe even to rescue others from it. All the while, more shadows, more priests, come at them from every side, and even with Hakuren's help, it's all Hakuyuu can do to keep track of everything around them, to keep any of it from hurting Hakuryuu.

" _Hakuei?!"_ Hakuren roars, kicking through a weak spot in a wall so they can all get through to the next room. "Hakuei?! Where are you?!"

Hakuryuu joins in, too, shrill and pleading. " _Aneue! Mother!"_

Hakuyuu can barely breathe, let alone speak, only pray to anyone who might listen that his sister wasn't close enough to be caught in the fire. Without thinking, he pauses, to catch his breath and let his burnt and bleeding body have just a moment's rest. In that one second, there's a rush of air and the blinding flashes that mark teleportation magic, and all of a sudden there are over two dozen priests circling them like a pack of bloodthirsty wolves, unveiled, shrieking with laughter. Instinctively, he raises his sword again, backs up to shield Hakuryuu with his own body, and hears Hakuren doing the same behind him. His stomach drops as he looks all around them, at the ever-rising flames and the pack of murderous cultists, and cold understanding sets in.

This is his mother's endgame. This is when and where and how she means for all of them to die: fighting an unwinnable battle against an endless deluge of enemies who can never die, until they drop, and either burn to death or are cut to pieces. He looks into the eyes of the priests, past the light of madness in every single one of them, and somehow he knows that she's watching him through them.

 _If that's what you want..._

He narrows his eyes, grips his sword tighter in bloodied hands, and for one last time, takes his battle stance.

 _Then I won't go down without a fight._

Hakuren, true to form, is far less subtle about his intentions. "All right then, you bastards, _come and get some!"_ he thunders, and charges at the nearest priest with a wordless roar of rage.

He doesn't know how long it lasts. A few moments, a few minutes...All he knows in that time is a sickening blur of red and black, flames and blood and flesh on his skin. The priests' sharp staves and cruel magic cuts away at his body, piece by piece. The flames eat away at the room, coming closer and closer until they're scorching some part of him with every move he makes. But the pain is quickly growing stronger than the fury that fuels him. Every part of him is in agony, he has no idea how he's still clinging to life, let alone staying on his feet, but he cannot let himself stop moving, stop attacking, for even a second more.

Hakuren, wounded just as badly and struggling just as hard, screams as if it's the only thing that's keeping him on his feet now. "Come on! _Come on!_ Fucking cowards, _I'll kill every single one of you!"_

His brother's war cries turn to a mantra in Hakuyuu's head, as he slashes apart priest after priest: _I will kill you...I will kill you all...I will kill you, Mother!_

All at once, an ear-piercing screech behind him, and the unmistakable sounds of ribs breaking and flesh being torn, yank him painfully back to reality. He whips around, praying, _begging,_ that it's not what he knows it is...

But his prayers are ignored. Hakuren stands, wide-eyed and shaking, with his sword raised above his head and a pointed scepter driven straight through his chest. Hakuryuu, still right behind him, stares upward in horrified disbelief, as his brother's blood drips from the scepter's blade onto his face. He's too frozen in fear to move or even notice when the scepter's owner abandons his weapon and dives to grab him, but it's this that breaks Hakuyuu out of his shock.

" _No!"_ he bellows, forcing his ruined body forward to chop the head from the priest's shoulders before he can reach the boy. Like all the others, he bursts into smoke, and a grinning doll falls to the floor. A moment later, Hakuren's body pitches forward as well, and the sound of his brother's body crashing down before him drives Hakuryuu straight back into reality.

" _Aniue!"_ he wails, dropping to his knees and shaking Hakuren's shoulder as hard as he can. "Aniue, get up! _Get up!_ We've got to go, we've got to get out of here!"

Hakuyuu can only stare at the pooling blood on the floor, at his brother's glassy eyes, the way his hand still limply clutches his sword.

 _No...No, please, no..._

His vision blurs, and the world sways, but he forces himself to hang on and stay on his feet. There's still one person left that he needs to protect, at any cost. And the fire is closing in on them far too fast, and if they don't find a way out, they will both surely die here.

"Hakuryuu," he says, hating how numb he knows he sounds, as he takes the boy's shoulder and tugs him away from their brother. "It's no use. We have to run, now - "

"No!" Hakuryuu cries, wrenching out of Hakuyuu's grip. "Not without him!"

Hakuyuu moves to grab him again, opens his mouth to say something else, but at that moment, something bursts apart between them, and great lashes of fire fly out at them both. Reflexively, Hakuyuu lurches back in time to avoid them (but what does it matter anyway, when he's already been cut and burnt beyond recognition), but Hakuryuu isn't fast enough to do the same. Hakuyuu can only watch as the flames sear the left half of his brother's face, and his piercing scream is the most horrible thing that he's ever heard.

" _It hurts! It's so hot!"_ Hakuryuu sobs, grabbing desperately at his left eye. "Mother! _Mother!"_

It's too much. This, after everything, is too much. Grief, horror, and pain beyond pain overwhelm him, and he drops to his hands and knees. He wants to get up, wants to grab his brother and run again, but he can't. He just _can't._ His strength to fight is finally exhausted. He stares at the burning ground, hating this, hating his mother for betraying them like this, hating himself for being too weak to stop her, hate, hate, _hate -_

"Aniue! Aniue!" Hakuryuu is crying next to him, reaching out as if to try and help him, and it tears at Hakuyuu's heart.

"So bitter..."

The voice that comes through his raw throat scarcely sounds like his. But if he cannot fight to protect his brother, then he must speak. He uses what little strength he has left to force his destroyed body to move, just enough to grab Hakuryuu's shoulders and look him in the face. He doesn't know what hurts worse to see: his own horrific reflection in Hakuryuu's eyes, or the vicious burn that will surely scar the boy's face for life. It doesn't matter anymore.

"This is the end for me and Hakuren...But you, Hakuryuu, you will live and complete our mission. Swear to me that you'll fight to the end! You have to strike down our country's worst enemy!"

Tears and blood run down Hakuryuu's face, and his eyes are blown wide with terror. "Aniue, what are you talking about?! Wh-Why are our own soldiers trying to kill us?!" he wails. "Who...Who would _do_ this?!"

Hakuryuu is so lost and confused already, and Hakuyuu knows full well that the answer to that question will shatter everything he thought he knew about the world. The truth will break him, and it won't keep him safe, but he must hear it. He must know, if he is to survive and finish what his brothers tried to start.

"The one who has stolen the Kou Empire...The one who wants to kill you is..." He leans in close, speaks into Hakuryuu's ear as clearly as he can, so his words cannot be mistaken. "Our mother, Ren Gyokuen."

Hakuryuu sucks in a shocked breath, and reels back. He's heard perfectly. "But, aniue, that...Th-That can't be true!"

Hakuyuu barely hears his brother's pleas, instead placing all his focus on grabbing for the sword he'd dropped beside him, lifting it with both hands, angling it just right. He has fought until he could no longer stand, he has passed on the truth, and now, this is the only thing left he can do to protect his little brother.

When he plunges the blade into his stomach, he gasps and Hakuryuu screams again. This new pain doesn't blend into the old, it's intense and white-hot and begs him to stop. But he keeps going, pulling the blade upward until he's ripped himself open from hip to shoulder, and his blood has spilled all over his horrified brother.

"Run...Go, before the fire...burns...you..."

He barely manages to get the last word out before his body gives out completely, and he collapses to the floor.

" _Aniue!"_

 _Please, run,_ he silently begs his brother. _Find the way out. Don't stay with me, you can't die here, please just_ go...

And after a long, long moment, Hakuryuu does. The sound of panting, crying, and rapid footsteps fade away mercifully quickly, leaving Hakuyuu lying alone in his own blood, waiting for the end, with only his own bitter thoughts to keep him company until it comes.

Telling Hakuryuu the truth of their family...It was foolish at best and cruel at worst to force that burden on a child's shoulders, he knows that. But it will hurt him even worse to live in ignorance, to become a pawn of their mother's. And it may yet be all right for him. If - no, _when_ \- he escapes this hell, he will surely tell Hakuei what he has learned, and Kouen and Koumei, too, when they return. They will protect him, and the four of them will stay together, support each other as they figure out how to take down their mother...how to take their brothers' revenge.

 _Oh? But they will fail. They will fail and die, like their weak brothers before them. After everything..._ This _is what all your brave talk about killing me comes to, my little hero?_

 _No...Please, no, don't let her voice in my head be the last thing I hear..._

His fear still grips him, but the pain is dulling, his thoughts growing sluggish. He can barely hear the roaring and hissing of the flames around him, and darkness is creeping in at the edges of his vision.

 _This isn't right...I didn't want this to happen...I, I don't want to die like this..._

More than he has ever wanted anything, he wishes he could be with his family again, wishes he could find peace. He wants his brothers and sister, his cousins, his father. Even...

 _Mother...Mother,_ why...

He doesn't understand.

The darkness takes over.

 **~0~**


End file.
